Can Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss evolve into SEC contender in 2023

Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss are quite entertaining within the confines of college football but can the Rebels take the next step to evolve into an SEC contender?

Ole Miss has the quarterbacks to do it, under Kiffin at least. But the run game is also quite good. But it’s the balance that was hard to find.

On3’s J.D. PicKell tried to clear that up on The Hard Count.

“Lane Kiffin to me is must-see TV, must-follow on Twitter, like I love him and I’ll just say that I think he is hysterical,” PicKell said. “I think he’s brave for college football. My question for Ole Miss is what is the next evolution? What does it look like? Because there’s few certainties in life: death, taxes and Lane Kiffin coaching offensive football. And he does it really well. Okay, so with Lane Kiffin, last year, the offense scored a lot of points. They were in the top 10 In terms of yards per game. But my question is evolution wise, they need to be I think a different brand of football if they want to compete for the SEC West. 

“Because last year, he had Quinshon Judkins, Zach Evans, and you fed them like a newborn baby. I mean, you made sure they were eating all the time … With that being said, I think Ole Miss might need to reevaluate their balance offensively because they ran the ball 60% of the time in 2022.”

There can be a good emphasis on the run game, but at Ole Miss’ rate? Maybe a little too much.

“I mean, like it was Ole Miss. And then it was Air Force, Army, Navy, all kind of grouped together with how much they ran the football,” PicKell said. “So with that being said, now for Ole Miss, that’s great. If you want to run the football, I think you have to run the football to be successful in the SEC. But to be elite in the SEC, you got to have balance. Because there’s some good defensive lines you’re gonna run into. 

“And if you are a one trick pony going up against Georgia, going up against Bama, going up against LSU and the freak shows they have an offensive line like that’s not going to be a sustainable way to get through that entire conference.”

Overall though, Pickell is a fan of what Kiffin and Ole Miss bring to the table offensively.

“So I like Ole Miss,” PicKell said. “I’m curious to see (who they’ll start) at quarterback. Seems to be a lot of buzz around Jaxson Dart. I’m also sitting here saying I don’t think Spencer Sanders came into Ole Miss as a transfer portal quarterback for no reason. They’re both still there.

“So at this point in time, that’s the situation. You got both those guys on the roster which a lot of people said couldn’t be done post spring. They got to be able to have some balance which just has to happen for Ole Miss.”

Kiffin and Ole Miss can certainly light it up on offense. It remains to be seen if it’ll all come together in 2023 in terms of evolution.