Lane Kiffin: Ole Miss must repeat performance ‘every week’ to make College Football Playoff

Ole Miss reshaped the College Football Playoff race after its 28-10 upset over Georgia in Week 11.

Not only did they open up the race even further for other teams on the bubble, but the Rebels are now a part of that conversation as the No. 11 team in the latest batch of CFP rankings. The margin of error has never been slimmer for Ole Miss, which is why head coach Lane Kiffin revealed his team should be taking the rest of the season week by week beginning with the bye in Week 12.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Kiffin said after the Georgia win. “We put ourselves in position now, not just beating Georgia, but beating them like that, to be in the playoffs. Not worry about the rankings, it will work itself out. We got two more games to play and we’ve got to go win those two games to put us in that position.

“I told them three weeks ago after the LSU game when we screwed up at the end — you go down there and don’t win, you’re going to have to win every game. It’s been four games so we had to win every week. The playoffs to me, you’re going to have to go through Georgia and it’s a different system now.”

As the Rebels remain idle in Week 12, they’ll get an extra week to prepare for Week 13’s matchup on the road at Florida. The Gators gave Georgia some trouble during their matchup several weeks ago, so that game isn’t a guaranteed victory for Ole Miss.

Even the Egg Bowl game against Mississippi State — a team that has lost nine of its last 10 games — isn’t guaranteed due to the rivalry nature of that matchup.

If Ole Miss can take care of the Gators and Bulldogs and reach 10 wins this regular season, the Rebels’ shot at making the College Football Playoff seems almost academic given their current ranking.