Joel Klatt defends ranking Ole Miss inside top five in preseason top 25

On the latest episode of The Joel Klatt Show, Joel Klatt decided to rank Ole Miss as the No. 5 team in the nation ahead of the 2024 college football season.

It’s a testament to the immense hype the Rebels are receiving this summer, in the new look SEC. Is Klatt wrong in his prediction? That remains to be seen, but he certainly believes Lane Kiffin’s bunch did everything in their power over the offseason to give themselves a shot at a national title in 2024.

“I put Ole Miss at five. Ole Miss is really talented,” Klatt said, regarding putting the Rebels in his top five. “Lane Train coming in the porta,l like just an absolute freight train. They have Jaxson Dart back. They just won 11 games. They’ve got it figured out with NIL. They’re building a great roster. Dart is going into his third year, so they’ve got this experience factor. I just, I know that they have to replace Quinshon Judkins, but man, like Ole Miss feels really good.

“Now, they don’t have to win the conference. They don’t have to beat the best teams in the SEC in order to go. So now all of a sudden, you look at a playoff berth and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, no, that can absolutely happen.’ A reasonable schedule by SEC standards. They have to play Georgia, but that one’s at home. They get a home game versus Oklahoma, and a road game at LSU. That’s not bad in that conference. So, Ole Miss is a team that I’ve got at five.”

Klatt makes some salient points regarding the Rebels. They’ve provided themselves with all the ingredients, now they just have to bake the cake. Ole Miss feels like an ascending team, and the media has been catching on throughout the last couple of month.

Still, Kiffin knows what rat poison looks like from his time with Nick Saban, and he’s not going to let Klatt or any other analyst help the Rebels get too high on their own supply.

“I spent a lot of time talking to them in the first meeting about outside expectations, hype, accolades, and those things and how little those mean,” Kiffin said, regarding keeping the main thing, the main thing. “This team hasn’t won any games — they haven’t played together. And even the players that have had previous success here or in other places, that doesn’t mean that either. Making sure that they understand whether it’s preseason rankings, whether it’s as a team, position, group, or individuals — (outside noise) means nothing.

“And those (expectations) can always be the exact opposite a lot of times from what can happen by the end of the year, so we have a lot of work to do.”

Ole Miss will be facing some pressure in 2024, but pressure can make diamonds. It’ll be fascinating to see where the Rebels end up when it’s all said and done, as they look to navigate the upcoming season with grace.