Lane Kiffin gushes over Georgia: Path to College Football Playoff runs through Bulldogs

Georgia-Ole Miss is taking center stage this weekend in the chase for SEC spots in the College Football Playoff, and Lane Kiffin knows it. The Rebels enter at the matchup with two-losses, ranked No. 16 and on the outside looking in. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are the No. 3 team in the land and well positioned to return to the Playoff, especially in its new 12-team format. Not only is Kiffin aware of the stakes for his squad, but also he understands the caliber of opponent Ole Miss is up against.

“I don’t talk about playoffs normally and championships and all that, because I think it really doesn’t matter,” Kiffin told reporters on Monday. “It’s about how you prepare and how you play. But I told our players, because they hear it all the time, ‘You still have that stuff alive,’ and in my opinion, anybody that’s going to win it is gonna have to go through Georgia at some point. They’re the premier program in college football.”

“Outside of Alabama, they’ve won 51-straight games,” the head coach continued. “Let me repeat that. 51-straight games. Not non-conference. Not in-conference. That’s 51, including playoffs, straight games – which has got to be some record in the history of football to win 51-straight against everybody but one program. They’re loaded as always and playing really well. Went into Texas, who was the No. 1 team, and beat them. This is a big challenge for us.”

Georgia and Ole Miss matched up last season, and it’s safe to say things didn’t go exactly how Kiffin would’ve imagined. With both teams ranked in the top-10 and ESPN’s College GameDay on hand, the Bulldogs handed the Rebels a 52-17 loss at Sanford Stadium. A year later, this Ole Miss team looks a little different.

“Ole Miss has got a tremendous team. Lane’s done an incredible job of getting talented players, big, physical. The improvement on defense for them is extremely noticeable,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “These guys are disruptive, powerful, fast, tons of sacks, tons of tackles for loss.  I think Jaxson Dart is playing (like) probably one of the best quarterbacks playing in the country in terms of explosive plays. A lot of respect for how he competes. I mean, the guy runs extremely physical, like a SEC running back. He doesn’t try to avoid contact — he actually seeks it. You can tell he’s got a fiery, competitive attitude, just like his coach does, just like Lane does. So they have a lot of the same personality traits. Tremendous team that really should probably be undefeated. At the end of the day, they’ve had two really, really close games, both games that they could have easily won. So great challenge ahead, and our team’s looking forward to it.”

Ole Miss added 26 players by way of the portal this offseason in a class that ranked top in the SEC, and No. 4 in the nation, according to On3. Headlined by a pair of defenders in the overall top-10 of available options – Walter Nolen (Texas A&M) and Princely Umanmielen (Florida) – plus pieces on the offensive side like Juice Wells (South Carolina) and Diego Pounds (North Carolina) to bolster an already excellent unit returning its starting quarterback and several weapons around him, the Rebels are hoping their offseason efforts lead to a different outcome on Saturday.

“I hope so. That game didn’t go very well a year ago,” Kiffin said. “Every game and season is independent and different. I think we’re in a better place, but these guys get the best high school players every year. Got more draft picks than anybody else because they do a great job recruiting and great job developing the players once they’re there.”

“Really, again, that one program with a miracle half where Michael Vick showed up – I just watched the film this morning and on a field where everybody was big and fast he was faster than everybody – that’s the only game they lost, and with all that happening, they still came back and took the lead at Alabama. This is a great football team with great coaches and great personnel. It’s why they’ve won 51 straight games – last time they lost besides Alabama was COVID to Florida. That says a lot about the great job they’ve done.”

Georgia and Ole Miss are set for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC this Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. Despite ESPN Analytics liking the Rebels to walk away victorious, VegasInsider shows that oddsmakers favor the Bulldogs by 2.5 points as of publication.