By Angie Ledbetter

Even though the Ole Miss Rebels fell to Georgia 27-13 Saturday in their second SEC game of the season there were bright moments for the Rebels.

One of those moments came before the estimated 58,041 fans at Vaught Hemingway Stadium when former South Panola standout Nickolas “Snoop” Brassell,  raced 81 yards after a handoff on a punt return scoring his first college touchdown.

The 6-0/172 freshman wide receiver is used on offense, defense and special teams.

The Rebels were down 24-7 with 49 seconds left in the third quarter and Brassell got the fans on their feet.
Sophomore running back Jeff Scott dropped back to return a punt and handed it off to Brassell who zigzagged his way around the corner. With a few good blocks, he picked up speed and took the ball 81 yards into the south end zone in front of the student section while the fans went crazy. That was the last scoring for the Rebels.

Brassell also had two receptions for 52 yards with his longest being 37, rushed once for 14 yards and was credited for one solo tackle.

Head Coach Houston Nutt praised Brassell in the post game press conference.

“Brassell was set up by Jeff Scott. Scott did an awesome job of catching the punt and had a great handoff. It was a good time to call it. That punt return was huge and it lifted us for halftime. You saw Brassell’s athletic skills and you saw a lot of freshman making big plays on a big boy’s game like Tobias Singleton, Donte Moncrief and Brassell. They did an excellent job.”

“It felt good to get my first touchdown. I saw Jeff and he came right handing me the ball. It was a great handoff. When I got the ball I saw it was two people in front of me and I knew no one was going to stop me. I saw the crowd jumping and I was smiling the entire time.”
Brassell was not happy about the end result.

“I would’ve felt better if we had won. I don’t think I sat down the entire game because I was trying to make plays on offense and defense. We needed to win to turn our season around but it’s not over. We practice hard every week but guess we’ve got to fight down deeper. We played harder this week and everybody put it all on the line. It’s going to take everybody staying together as a team and staying focused for us to win and I know we can.”

Brassell was recognized in the weekly SEC report which names players of the week. He was not cited as player of the week but under the head of “other outstanding performances from week 4.