Harrison Wallace III is back in the CFP semifinals with a second shot at glory. This time with Ole Miss

For the second time in as many years Harrison Wallace III is back in the College Football Playoffs semifinals. He is also doing it with a different team with Ole Miss playing in Thursday’s Fiesta Bowl.

A year ago Wallace was one of Penn State’s top receivers and helped the Nittany Lions get to the CFP semifinals before losing to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. One other serendipitous coincidence is Wallace will also be playing in his second straight Fiesta Bowl.

Penn State beat SMU in last year’s game inside State Farm Stadium as part of the quarterfinals of the playoffs.

“It’s a great environment. Scottsdale, where we’ll be staying, it’s beautiful,” Wallace said on Sunday. “The stadium where we’re playing is beautiful. It’s going to be fun. I’m ready for a lot of our guys to experience it.”

When Wallace transferred to Ole Miss from the Nittany Lions he immediately became the lone player with CFP experience. He was extremely confident last year was not going to be his only playoff experience.

The confidence paid off and now he is able to instill the lessons he learned in his first CFP run with the rest of his teammates who are all experiencing this run for the first time together.

“Really just staying in the moment. The first round, I talked to the receivers a little bit, just staying in the moment and just not thinking about the championship, because you got to get through other games to get through that,” Wallace said. “And just how it’s different from the regular season, just because if you lose, you don’t have another game. Just really staying in the moment and being where your feet are.”

The talk of playing for a national championship is growing a little louder in the locker room following last week’s Sugar Bowl win.

Now, Ole Miss is 60 minutes away from having the chance bring a national title back to Oxford for the first time in over six decades.

“It has. It’s the talk of the locker room,” Wallace said. “It’s something we wanted since January, since we started. Just glad we’re in this position, and we just got to get it done.”

To get it done Ole Miss has to beat Miami, which is currently a 3.5-point favorite to win the Fiesta Bowl.

The ESPN matchup predictor gives the Hurricanes over a 60 percent chance to win.

Odds have never been in the favor of the Rebels since the first round. They were the underdog to Georgia and most were already penciling in a rematch of the Bulldogs with former quarterback Carson Beck this week in Arizona. Instead Wallace and his teammates continue to prove the doubters wrong.

For him, this week is the chance to hoist up a second straight Fiesta Bowl trophy but also reach the place he was unable to a year ago.

“They’re one of the top three defenses in the country,” Wallace said of Miami. “They’re going to bring a lot of pressure. They have two great guys coming off the Dline, and then a great back end. It’s going to be a great challenge. Looking forward to going out there and working.”