Lane Kiffin hasn’t a team at Ole Miss quite like this. Usually the offense is at the forefront, but inconsistent quarterback play has held this team back from reaching the College Football Playoff. Look at what happened last year, Jaxson Dart threw the game away against Florida last year. This season, though, the offensive consistency seems solved through a Division II transfer quarterback.
Defensively, it’s the best Kiffin led Ole Miss team ever. While they’ve given up a lot of yards, they’ve managed to keep good teams from terrorizing them. The Rebels held their own against LSU last week, holding them to 19 points and held Garrett Nussmeier under 200 passing yards. They also forced an interception.
What makes this Ole Miss team scarier than usual is they look like what a typical SEC team does: a really good defense with a solid offense. The difference is, a Lane Kiffin led offense is always going to be flashy, high-paced and scoring a lot. Now that an unexpected quarterback solution came into the fold, the Rebels have all the makings to be one of the best teams in the conference.
Ole Miss’s defense will be key to their success this season
If you take the Arkansas game out of the fold, the Rebels have had one of the most elite pass defense performances this season. Taylen Green is the only quarterback to eclipse 200 passing yards, throwing for 305 against Ole Miss. Two quarterbacks were held under 100 passing yards and Kentucky was held to 149 passing yards.
The Rebels’ defense usually looks like they did against Arkansas and the fact that five games in they’ve contained teams’ passing attack, that is a sign that this isn’t your ordinary Ole Miss team that looks destined to throw the season away. If this defense can keep it up throughout their conference slate, they could ultimately get into the CFP.
Consistency is important though and doing it against good teams. This Ole Miss defense passed its first test of the year against LSU, but they have Georgia and Oklahoma left to play to prove their defense has truly improved.
Trinidad Chambliss is quickly making Ole Miss fans forget about Austin Simmons
Austin Simmons entered the season as the incumbent to Jaxson Dart and after the first quarter of the season, his injury might have given his backup the perfect opportunity to steal his job. Chambliss has looked better in the three full games he’s played, than Simmons has in his first two full games. Considering Chambliss came from D-II Ferris State and Simmons was a four-star prospect in 2023, that says a lot.
Chambliss has not only played better, but he’s dominated in the two SEC games he’s played in. Against Arkansas, he threw for 353 and a touchdown pass and then 314 with a touchdown and an interception against LSU. This is what the Rebels’ offense needs. This is why this Ole Miss team is different from previous years.
Lane Kiffin has no choice but to win this year with the best team he’s ever assembled
Ole Miss might not have as much pressure to win as they do this year. Kiffin has put together a team that looks dangerous in the SEC. Ole Miss usually has a solid offense and can hold their own, but it’s usually their defense that holds them back. Their defense this year looks as good as any defense in college football.
That Arkansas game was an outlier and the LSU game was proof of that. If this is a new version of what Kiffin can put together at Ole Miss, the rest of the SEC should be on high alert.