Ole Miss finds itself with another season at a crossroads with an 'elite' Texas A&M up next
Through eight games last year Ole Miss was sitting 7-1 with a trip to College Station up next to try and wash the taste of the loss at LSU out of its mouth the week prior.
Time is a flat circle for the No. 11 Rebels who are once again 7-1 through its first eight games and the same Texas A&M team is next up on the docket for game number nine. In fact Ole Miss was also a Top-15 team at this time in 2022, sitting at No. 15 ahead of taking on the Aggies.
Lane Kiffin took his team to College Station and defeated Texas A&M for the second time in his Ole Miss tenure and the Rebels entered its bye week at No. 11 and 8-1.
Sound familiar?
Fast forward nearly 365 days later and Ole Miss is 4-1 in Southeastern Conference play and have the opportunity for yet another chance to be 8-1 ahead of taking on No. 1 Georgia in Athens on November 11.
Before any of those dominoes fall Kiffin, who is deep into his fourth season with the Rebels, spoke highly of the next opponent and the “huge challenge” on the schedule when opening his weekly press conference on Monday.
“(Texas A&M is) absolutely loaded. It’s kind of mind-blowing collection of talent when you watch them offensively, defensively, special teams,” Kiffin started. “It really is like an NFL roster. Height, weight, speed, explosiveness. Receivers that can score anytime. …They’ve done a great job of getting a collection of players that are extremely elite.”
Whether that was Kiffin being tongue-in-cheek about the Aggies roster comparative to its 5-3 start to the season or not can be debated at another time.
For the Rebels it is about keeping the season on course and searching for its fifth straight SEC victory.
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The recent success boosted Ole Miss back up the rankings and earning a Top-10 ranking for a third straight season.
A streak such as that has not happened for the program since 1962-64. The Rebels moved up to No. 10 in this week’s Coaches Poll.
Sitting at or just outside the Top 10 on October 30 is not the endgame but Kiffin is aware of the quick success on a national level he has created at Ole Miss, which is now the longest-tenured job of his career.
Kiffin also managed to get a little jab in on Texas A&M and sixth-year head coach Jimbo Fisher.
“It’s kind of neat three straight years to be in the Top 10, but it doesn’t matter to me except for where you finish,” Kiffin said. “It’s good that it brings attention to the program and all that, especially when you’re going against a program that normally you would think would be in the Top 10 three years in a row with their roster.
“It says a lot about our players, our coaches, our fans but what really matters is where you finish at the end of the year. That’s our goal. To keep getting better, to keep winning games. We try to achieve our goals and not let others achieve their goals. I read where Jimbo said their goal is to be bowl eligible. So if we can get in the way of that it would be good for us, too.”
Ole Miss is looking for its second three-game winning streak in its series with the Texas A&M. The Rebels took three in a row against the Aggies from 2014-16.
