What Ole Miss must do to make the College Football Playoff in 2024

This 2024 season will bring perhaps the highest expectations for Ole Miss football since Lane Kiffin took over as coach five years ago. The Rebels are coming off of an 11-2 record and Peach Bowl victory this past season and are receiving buzz to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff in Kiffin’s fifth year.

On3 national college football columnist Jesse Simonton joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday and discussed his expectations for Ole Miss. He noted that while the Rebels “absolutely should” be a contender, it will ultimately come down to how they fare against the top teams in the SEC.

“With Ole Miss, they absolutely should be a College Football Playoff contender in 2024,” Simonton said. “What Lane has done in the portal was obviously second-to-none really to Mike Norvell. Where it always centers with Ole Miss is, I’m a firm believer in ‘Just cause you haven’t doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t.’ However, Lane Kiffin to date, his long track record at Tennessee, USC and now Ole Miss (is) he beats the teams he’s supposed to.

“Can he start winning some games that you’re not expected to win? The Alabamas, Georgias and those sorts of games. If he does that, there’s no reason why Ole Miss can’t contend for their first SEC Championship in school history.”

Ole Miss is a combined 0-5 in its matchups against Alabama and Georgia under Kiffin. The Rebels avoid facing Alabama in the regular season this year but will take on Georgia, LSU and Oklahoma.

Ole Miss is set to bring back starting quarterback Jaxson Dart and two of its top three receivers in Tre Harris and Jordan Watkins. They also made a big splash in the transfer portal to rank No. 6 in On3’s Transfer Portal Team Rankings, bringing in big names such as running back Rocket Sanders and receiver Juice Wells.

As usual, the Rebels should once again have one of the top offenses in the country. But as expectations rise with the success they’ve had the past few years, this will be a major year for Kiffin, who has arguably his best chance to compete in all of his career.

“I think Kiffin is one of the faces of the sport now,” Simonton said. “He’s at his best when he can kind of play the underdog card, but he really hasn’t won under those situations yet. Can he actually do that? That will be the tale for the Rebels in 2024 because the roster is there. What they’ve assembled talent-wise with player retention — getting Dart to come back, getting some defensive players to come back — then you bring in just a mercenary group of transfers. They’ve never had a more talented team. Now can they actually get it done on a 12-game schedule?”

Ole Miss kicks off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against Furman.