Ole Miss looking the part, living up to College Football Playoff hype during fall camp

Ole Miss enters the college football season with their highest preseason ranking since 1970, coming in at No. 6 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll following an 11-win season last year and a dominant offseason of recruiting in the transfer portal.

On paper the Rebels have one of the most impressive rosters across college football, but do they look the part in person?

OM Spirit‘s Ben Garrett has boots on the ground in Mississippi and believes that Ole Miss has been living up to their national hype as an SEC and potential national championship contender during fall camp in Oxford.

“Absolutely, I think that’s one of the biggest takeaways from preseason camp,” Garrett said at the On3 Roundtable. “I mean, with a team like this, where there’s a lot of questions not just about the personnel, but also can Ole Miss really be that team that steps up and takes over and breaks through the glass ceiling like Clemson did? And one of the first things you want to see is do they look like that? And they absolutely look like that out there on the practice fields.”

For the second straight season, Ole Miss has had over 20 players join the program through the transfer portal. With 18 of their 22 projected starters starting their college careers at a different program. But a handful of this year’s latest additions join the Rebels from other SEC programs with hopes of competing for national title.

“It’s all business, but the vibes are immaculate because they all came here for the same reason. They all want the same shot of the title,” Garrett added.

“Trey Amos, for example, thought that Alabama didn’t offer the same opportunity to contend that Ole Miss did in 2024-25. So he left Alabama to come to Ole Miss. Florida wasn’t the stage that Princely Umanmielen was looking for, so he voluntarily leaves Florida and comes to Ole Miss,” Garrett explained. “So that’s across the roster, that’s across the board, and it looks that way.”

There’s no doubt that Ole Miss has one of the highest ceilings in the country this upcoming season. But national titles aren’t won on paper, as they’ll attempt to live up to the hype and strive for championship success on the field this season.

“From the look of things, a personnel standpoint, and looking like the team you want them to look like if they are to contend this year, there’s no doubt. You walk in the practice fields, that’s a national title-contending football team right there,” Garrett concluded.