2022 At a Glance: Is this the year Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin bests Nick Saban and Alabama?
NOTE: This series is giving an overview of Ole Miss football’s 2022 opponents. Next up is a quick glance at Alabama who has a rare November matchup with the Rebels.
Ole Miss and Alabama have a unique mystique about them when the two football program have met up over the last eight years.
In 2014 and 2015 Ole Miss managed to secure the rare back-to-back victories over the Crimson Tide, seemingly making it feel like a new rivalry could be igniting. The Rebels had Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s number.
But then the Tide snuffed it out as quickly as they suffered those consecutive losses, beating Ole Miss the last six games in the series.
Since Lane Kiffin came to Ole Miss two seasons ago there has been a quiet, maybe sometimes not so quiet, buzz that he could be the one to snap the skid.
Kiffin’s tenure at Ole Miss has not produced that needed win, yet, but 2022 is a new year and a fresh slate. Is this the season a third former assistant coach of Saban’s gets the better of him?
Related: Where is the Ole Miss quarterback race after two fall scrimmages?
Last season’s game in Tuscaloosa was one that felt like it offered the most promise of an Ole Miss win under Kiffin.
But then the popcorn was gotten and Alabama was the one enjoying themselves in a 42-21 victory.
Entering his third year at Ole Miss, Kiffin gets Alabama in the third month of the season. In recent history the Rebels and the Tide have met in the early weeks of the season in September.
Having nine games, plus a bye week, ahead of them before hosting Alabama on Nov. 12 may not necessarily be viewed as a positive by Ole Miss.
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“Well, no disrespect to Alabama. I couldn’t tell you what number on the schedule they were because we got a lot of things to figure out, to work on before we get to game one,” Kiffin said last month at SEC Media Days.
“I’m not concerned about the schedule. I had a question earlier, ‘Do you like that?’ Supposedly it’s easier up front. You don’t know that. At the end of the year, you guys, us included, think these teams are going to be better than these. You don’t know. We just got to work one day at a time, integrate all these players in, play the best we can.”
Kiffin was not, and is not, wrong about having plenty of things to figure out before Sept. 3.
Thinking of a game more than two months later, Alabama or otherwise, would be foolish for Ole Miss.
Still, the early fall showdown between Ole Miss and Alabama could be one that Kiffin hangs his hat on if the scoreboard leans in their favor by nights end.
Coming off the schedule ahead of the Alabama game, including games at LSU and Texas A&M, a win over the preseason No. 1 team could provide very integral in where Ole Miss finds themselves in the postseason.
