Bo Wallace didn’t want to talk about it after the game. Hugh Freeze wanted to exonerate himself from it. LSU fans wanted to celebrate it like the invention of a gumbo-flavored beer.

The call was simple, or so it seemed. Ole Miss wanted to, greedily or not, gain a few extra yards for its freshman kicker before he trotted out to try a game-tying field goal. Wallace was tasked with either hitting the open receiver in the flat or throwing the ball away to leave a couple of seconds for the field goal attempt. But in a season that has been defined by the ceaseless Good Bo vs. Bad Bo discussion in Oxford, it seemed like it had to come down to this.

As the seconds painfully ticked away with Wallace’s pass floating through the air in Tiger Stadium Saturday, you realized the game was officially going to come down to which inner Bo would win out.

When Ronald Martin jumped in front of the errant throw and plucked it out of the air, it was obvious. Bad Bo would seal Ole Miss’ fate.

After the game Wallace complained of conservative play calling hindering his offense from fully gearing up to speed.

“You know I want to be more aggressive, but that’s on the coaches and what they call. Hopefully we can be more aggressive this week,” Wallace said.

Hugh Freeze threw Wallace under the bus in the postgame press conference by telling the world that his QB specifically did what he was not supposed to do. “I thought we were pretty clear we would take that flat throw or throw it out of bounds,” Freeze countered.

In the end, Ole Miss incurred its first defeat of the season and will have little time to think about it with Auburn coming to town this Saturday.

The Rebels’ first loss of the season was a heartbreaker for sure. It doesn’t help that it came at the hands of a hated rival in their house, with Billy Cannon looking on while Mississippi State took care of business on the road to preserve its No. 1 ranking. But this one loss has far from eliminated the Rebs in the race for a title in what has become the toughest division in college football. Mississippi State still has to travel to Tuscaloosa, and the Iron Bowl will determine which Alabama team will be gone from playoff discussion.

Ole Miss is still firmly entrenched in the SEC West race and a spot at the table come playoff selection time, just like their counterparts in Starkville. In fact, the only thing this loss might have done is drop the outrageous Egg Bowl ticket prices just a little bit.

Maybe now Warren Buffett can afford to go.

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Cory Gunkel is a reporter. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, Ext. 178 or by email at cory.gunkel@vicksburgpost.com