Ole Miss featured in two of On3’s Top 10 SEC football games of 2024-25
Ole Miss is featured in two of the Top 10 SEC games of 2024-25, according to On3’s Jesse Simonton.
The Rebels have the third-best record in the SEC since Lane Kiffin debuted as head coach in 2020. Athlon recently ranked Ole Miss No. 5 in its preseason Top 25 for next season. The Rebels are fresh off their first-ever 11-win campaign.
Ole Miss has the sixth-best odds to win the national championship and third-best odds to win the SEC. The Rebels kick off the year against Furman on August 31.
Georgia at Alabama on September 28 led Simonton’s list, followed by Texas at Texas A&M on November 30. But Ole Miss at LSU (October 12) was No. 6, while Georgia at Ole Miss (November 9) came in at No. 10.
FROM SIMONTON: Last season’s game between the Rebels and Tigers were a Disney fireworks show — a 55-49 final with more than 1,300 total yards. LSU lost a game in which its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels had over 500 total yards and five touchdowns.
Considering the rest of Ole Miss’ 2024 schedule (no Texas, Alabama, Texas A&M, Tennessee or Missouri) there are not many other opportunities for marquee victories — but a win in Tigers Stadium would more than qualify. Meanwhile, a second-straight loss to the Rebels would not behoove Brian Kelly, whose relationship with the Tigers’ faithful is already growing a bit strained.
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Mike ‘SEC Mike’ Bratton believes Ole Miss has what it takes to win it all next season.
The Rebels first must secure a berth in the now-expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff. Ole Miss was ranked inside the Top 10 at different points each of the last three years.
FROM SIMONTON: The last of Georgia’s three tough road games concludes in Oxford. The Bulldogs trounced the Rebels 52-17 last season, racking up over 600 yards at 10.1 per play. The beatdown was so brutal that Lane Kiffin openly discussed the need to upgrade Ole Miss’ offensive and defensive lines in the offseason — which is precisely what he did with the transfer portal.
Under Kiffin, the Rebels have been really good in recent years winning the games they’re supposed to. Now can they engineer a home upset and possibly secure a spot in the CFP (and SEC Championship?)
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Ole Miss is one of five SEC teams On3’s Andy Staples placed in his projected playoff field.
Pro Football Focus last month named Ole Miss one of its five ‘Portal Winners’ from the off-season. A few make up the 11 Rebels named preseason All-American by Phil Steele.
Kiffin, this week, was named to the preseason watch list for the Dodd Trophy, the nation’s most coveted coaching award.
“Nick Saban is no longer coaching Alabama,” On3 national analyst JD PicKell recently said of the Rebels. “That’s one less ‘Boss Level,’ if you’re an Ole Miss fan, you have to get through and ultimately beat to win the SEC. There’s a pathway now.
“Long gone are the days you’ve got to get to Atlanta, win the Hunger Games that are the SEC and stand on top of that mountain as you walk into the four-team playoff. Now it’s, ‘Can you be 10-2? Can you be Top 3 in the SEC? Top 4 in the SEC?’ If you can do that, then you find your way into the College Football Playoff.”
The Rebels have been to four straight bowls, including a pair of New Year’s Six appearances. Kiffin is 95-49 overall in 11 years as an FBS head coach. He’s 34-15 at Ole Miss.
“I think Ole Miss can win the national championship. I legitimately do,” Bratton said. “Now, I’m not sitting here saying they’re the favorites to do it, but outside of Georgia and maybe Ohio State, I would probably put Ole Miss right there at No. 3 with anybody in the country.”
