Top 25 in 25: Ole Miss Football Season Preview

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We’re counting down the final 25 days before the college football season by previewing every one of our preseason top 25 teams! With 24 days left until week zero, we continue our previews with my No. 24 team in the country – the Ole Miss Rebels.

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Projected Record: 10-2 (6-2)

Ceiling/Floor: 11-1/7-5

Projected Wins: Georgia State, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tulane, LSU, Washington State, South Carolina, The Citadel, Florida, Mississippi State

Projected Losses: Georgia, Oklahoma

Most Intriguing Game: South Carolina (Week 10)

Ole Miss is coming off a relatively disappointing 9-3 season where it missed the playoff after being ranked in the preseason top 10 and had all the makings to make a run at the national title. The Rebels are losing a lot of production from a year ago too, but with head coach Lane Kiffin’s mastery in the transfer portal, along with maybe the easiest schedule in the SEC, the playoff is still right there for them in 2025.

A big determining factor to the Rebels performance this year will be on the shoulder of Austin Simmons, who steps in to try and fill Jaxson Dart’s shoes at quarterback. Simmons has a ton of potential, but very little playing experience heading into the season, so how he performs will be a mystery until toe hits leather in the fall. He’s surrounded by a completely revamped offense as well. Kiffin brought some talented pieces in from the portal as usual, but it’s always a question on whether those pieces will mesh with all the unfamiliarity with the system and each other.

The Rebel defense has almost an identical story to the offense – very little returning production but extremely talented acquisitions in the portal. On paper, the strength of the defense should be its front seven. Linebackers TJ Dottery and Suntarine Perkins are back from last year, and elite portal additions in Princewell Umanmielan and Da’Shawn Womack will anchor the defensive line. But the secondary could be a cause for concern for Ole Miss, and they have four games to try and figure it out before Garrett Nussmeier and LSU come to town week five.

My projected record for the Rebels doesn’t tell the whole story, as I think they’re slightly overrated compared to where most people have them in the preseason. But like all of these teams loaded with transfers, it’s really an unknown until they step out on the field for the first time. If they can find a way to get their talent to mesh and Simmons lives up to his potential, then they could easily navigate a favorable schedule to SEC contention and a playoff spot, but there’s always the potential to flop as well. It should be interesting to see which direction Lane Kiffin’s squad goes in 2025.

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