Identifying teams Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss must beat to take next step in 2024

The expectations are higher than ever in Oxford, Mississippi this upcoming season given the work that head coach Lane Kiffin has put in this offseason for Ole Miss.

From retaining key players and adding a slew of other difference-makers through the transfer portal, the Rebels are poised and expected by many to make some noise in a new look SEC ahead of the 2024 season. Expectations that On3’s Jesse Simonton believes Kiffin is well aware of after spending some time at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Florida this week.

“I think Lane understands, he said it yesterday Andy, he understands that this is easily the most talented team that Ole Miss has ever had and that’s why they’re being talked about as potentially winning or getting to an SEC Championship for the first time in school history,” Simonton said Wednesday during Andy Staples On3. “That’s why the College Football Playoff expectations have kind of been laid at a program that quite frankly if they won eight or nine games the fans would rejoice.”

“But as Kiffin said, just because they’re the most talented team the program has ever had doesn’t mean they’re the best team, and that’s where you have to marry those expectations with the results on the field.”

Kiffin led Ole Miss to their best season to date last year, finishing the year with an 11-2 record capped off with a Peach Bowl win over Penn State. But despite 2023 being his second double-digit win season in his four years with the program, Kiffin is yet to lead the program to a conference title game. Which according to Simonton will take him doing something he’s struggled to do at all of his Power Five coaching stops.

“My biggest hold up with Ole Miss, and this is not a can’t or won’t, it’s just will they and that’s will Lane Kiffin start to win some games he’s not supposed to?” Simonton asked. “He’s been extremely good at beating all the teams on Ole Miss’ schedule, or on Tennessee‘s schedule, or on USC‘s schedule that they were supposed to … He’s gonna have to do that this year, whether it’s a coin flip against Georgia, whether it’s a game against Oklahoma, or at LSU. One of these couple games on the schedule that Ole Miss is not supposed to win, that’s going to be the determining factor of whether they are able to live up to this kind of big 2024 hype.”

Per usual, the SEC is a gauntlet. But the Rebels do have a pretty favorable schedule compared to other teams in the conference. Plus the end of divisions in the conference and Alabama head coach Nick Saban sets Ole Miss up for more success than ever before. Likely tasked with hanging onto a top-12 ranking heading throughout the season in order to make the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

“You’re gonna see Ole Miss in that five, six, seven, eight, nine range in a lot of preseason polls. That means you have the potential opportunity to win a national championship, so you might have to beat a Georgia, or Alabama, or Texas at least once. You’re gonna have to beat maybe an Ohio State,” Simonton said.

“By SEC standards their schedule is quite favorable when you look at some of the other teams in this league. What Georgia has, obviously what Florida has, Oklahoma’s schedule is ghoulish. So this is the season, this is what Ole Miss, Missouri, they have kind of pushed all their chips in on this year where they’ve identified they’ve got a veteran team coming back,” Simonton explained. “You get Jaxson Dart, you get some of the other pieces, Tre Harris, and then you supplement it with the Walter Nolen‘s and the Juice Wells‘ and two dozen other guys that I think are gonna make high-impact plays.”

On paper, Ole Miss has the roster and experience to have their best season to date. But only time will tell if they can live up to their lofty expectations and capitalize on a major opportunity this season.