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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-08-07 14:27:47+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
Ole Miss (high = 11, low = 20), who comes in at #16 in the aggregated rankings but the 7th rated team in the SEC, was perhaps the most butthurt about missing out on the ole CFP last season, at least to have heard Lane Kiffin tell about it. Captain Subtlety took jabs at the selection committee as Indiana and SMU failed to live up to his standards in their CFP games while ignoring the underperformance of most of the SEC teams in their own postseason performances. To be fair, he did keep the Rebels focused enough to drill Duke in the Gator Bowl and put a cap on their 10-3 season rather than be sufficiently introspective to realize that losing a home game to Kentucky for the Wildcats only SEC win probably singlehandedly kept Ole Miss out of any serious playoff discussion. At least he’s turned his gaze to Hugh Freeze’s golf game now in advance of his 6th season in charge in Oxford (his longest stay in any single place). Will the Rebels make more headlines for their play on the field, for Lane’s tweets, for Landry’s pictures or for his middle daughter’s volleyball career at USC? Time will tell.
Roster outlook
For sure, Ole Miss had a lot riding on 2024, and they’ll have a significant amount of reloading to do. They rank 113th nationally in returning production, and below 100 on both sides of the ball. Gone is, well, pretty much everybody who was a major contributor in 2024. QB Jaxson Dart is going to try to follow in Eli Manning’s footsteps as the NY Giants QB of the future, WR Tre Harris is apparently suffering a case of the drops in Chargers training camp, WR Jordan Watkins is hoping to replace Deebo Samuel in San Francisco and leading RB Henry Parrish is, well, out of eligibility. Meanwhile, the entire starting OL, including TE Caden Prieskorn (Denver Broncos) is also gone. On defense, the entire starting unit other than LB TJ Dottery is gone after having 5 players drafted. Backup QB Austin Simmons, WR Cayden Lee and RB Logan Diggs (he of the 1 carry for 15 yards and 1 catch for 6 yards in 2024, but to be fair, he did see plenty of action in previous stops at LSU and Notre Dame) are the only players with stats of note to return. The helps explain why Kiffin went heavy into the portal, bringing in the 4th rated class nationally and 2nd in the SEC with 30 new players to go with the 16th best recruiting class in the country. That includes 7 projected defensive starters such as DL Princewill Umanmielen (Nebraska) and Da’Shawn Womack (LSU) and DBs Sage Ryan (LSU), Tavoy Feagin (Clemson), Antonio Kite (Auburn), Jaylon Braxton (Arkansas) and Kapena Gushiken (Washington State). Feels like every Rebels fan will need to buy a program for the season opener. Meanwhile, Kiffin also fortified the line with Arkansas OL Patrick Kutas and a bunch of new WRs (Alabama’s Caleb Odom, Penn State’s Harrison Wallace, Oklahoma State’s De’Zhaun Stribling, West Virginia’s Traylon Ray and Wake Forest’s Deuce Alexander). Ahh, remember when SEC players couldn’t directly move to another conference team? Feels like a lifetime ago…
Schedule and outlook
Ole Miss’ OOC is weirdly spread throughout the season. They open with Georgia State, but host potentially sneaky Tulane in week 4, Washington State in week 7 and their late season SEC special The Citadel in week 11. I’d joke about their SEC opener at Kentucky being a laugher, but after last season, maybe I shouldn’t. On paper, the Rebels should go into their week 5 game against LSU undefeated (assuming they take care of business against Arkansas). That LSU game should be the bellwether for how the season will go for the Rebels. If they can beat the Tigers, they essentially get 3 weeks to prepare for their trip to Georgia, followed by traveling to Oklahoma, hosting South Carolina, hosting Florida after their Citadel cupcake and a bye before closing it out with the Egg Bowl. The schedule really does set up nicely with lots of time to prepare for their biggest games (that trip to Norman the week after Georgia is a dangerous letdown spot). If all that talent gels, the Rebels could very well be a CFP team and even an SEC contender. But that requires them to come ready to play every week instead of just being an entertaining and funny Twitter follow.