Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic

Cotton Bowl Classic Head Coaching Record: 1-0-0

Players loved to compete for Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe. In football and in life he taught them how to win. He instilled confidence by teaching them to become fundamentally sound, to focus, believe in one another, eliminate mistakes, and to fight through adversity. Coach Cut guided the Rebels to their first 10-victory season in 32 years with a 31-28 triumph over Oklahoma State in the 2004 Cotton Bowl Classic. But it didn’t come easy. After building a 17-point, fourth-quarter advantage, he braced the Rebels to expect a furious comeback attempt by the Cowboys. OSU did just that and chopped the margin to three with 4:38 to play. Ole Miss didn’t flinch, dug in, engineered a 65-yard drive and ran out the clock. Cutcliffe’s life lessons paid big dividends for the Rebels.