Reb Talk Review: Ole Miss is welcoming the College Football Playoff discussions, sort of
A Lane Kiffin team is usually constantly told to avoid the noise and leave the ‘rat poison’ to the fans and media but with the next two most important games this season coming up Ole Miss is welcoming it with open arms.
The No. 9 Rebels are sitting in a strong position to make the College Football Playoffs after Tuesday’s latest rankings but still need to take down Florida this weekend in Gainesville and then Mississippi State six days later.
In the 24/7 news cycles that are the norm for 2024 and CFP talk everywhere you look and go, Kiffin is giving in to the chatter or at the very least not doing his best effort to keep it out of The Manning Center these days.
“We used to avoid things completely. I just don’t think you can completely avoid (anymore) because it’s everywhere they go because of the rankings every week,” Kiffin said during his Reb Talk appearance on Thurdsay. “Before it was just a ranking and wasn’t really that big of a deal. ‘Did you get into a New Year’s Six Bowl?’. Now it’s everywhere. I do talk to them about it, but, ‘Hey, the way you can be in those conversations is keep winning, that’s why you’re in them now. Play really well and take it one game at a time, like you would in the playoffs.'”
With the bye week between Saturday’s game in The Swamp and the win over Georgia inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium it will interesting to see if the new strategy of acknowledging the CFP-sized elephant in the room or not.
Ole Miss is getting healthier by the day it appears
Thursday’s availability report is the short it has been for the Rebels all season with three players on it, including Logan Diggs who continues to be listed as ‘questionable.’
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The two others are Henry Parrish, Jr. and Izaiah Hartup. Both are listed as ‘out.’ Beyond that every other Rebel that can suit up is not included on the report.
Wednesday’s first report of the week had a handful of players listed as ‘probable,’ including Jaxson Dart, Jordan Watkins, Juice Wells and Tre Harris.
On Thursday those names were removed from the list.
“Henry Parrish is out for the year unfortunately,” Kiffin said on Thursday. “Tre Harris will be back this week, still leading the SEC in yards which is amazing. The passing game has been on without him, so it’s an exciting time to get him back.”
Kiffin also expounded on the status of Diggs for the rest of the season.
“Well, (Diggs is) doing a good job. He’s still working his way back, not all the way back,” Kiffin said. “But he’s made really good progress and it’d be really good to have a big back like that, that’s played in the SEC.”
