Opponent Preview: Can Ole Miss Get Over The Hump?

The Ole Miss File

Location: The Grove, also known as the trees that SEC West football fans choose not to roll with toilet paper.

Home Stadium: Vaught Hemingway Stadium, capacity 64,238, but sometimes a bit more depending on who is doing the math.

Notable Rebels: Archie Manning and Eli Manning, relatives of a current University of Texas quarterback who is 0-2 against Georgia in his career. Other noted Ole Miss grads are legal thriller novelist John Grisham and the King of Margaritaville himself, Jimmy Buffett.

Could new faces change the offensive scheme?

Jaxson Dart has moved on to the NFL, but that should not be mistook for Ole Miss being expected to take a step back on the offensive side of the ball. One reason for that is the highly-touted Austin Simmons, who now gets the chance to show why he was courted by top-flight schools to begin with. He won’t be going it alone, however.

The Rebels loaded up on transfers last year, and it nearly, as Georgia fans saw in-person, got them into the CFP a season ago. This year, Simmons will have new-arriving targets in Harrison Wallace and De’Zhaun Stribling. The running game is where things get really interesting. Fans in The Grove have to feel good about Logan Diggs returning, but the other half of that is that the ground game was the Rebels’ weak point last year. Could Simmons and an adjusted offensive scheme play a role in getting that effort going on steadier ground? If so, it’ll help Ole Miss meet expectations. Regardless, the big key is how well offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. can get all of these new faces to mesh.

Despite losses, don’t expect a defensive regression

To say that Ole Miss was very good up front last year is an understatement. If you are looking for transfer portal return-on-investment, what the Rebels did defensively was, among other things, leading the nation in sacks per game.

Despite three linemen now on NFL rosters from that group, the expectation is for this group to set the tone and not take a step back. That’s good news for Ole Miss fans and bad for opposing offensive lines as new transfer adds include Da’Shawn Womack and Princewill Umanmielen.

Suntarine Perkins leads the way at linebacker, and if he stays healthy, the potential NFL first-rounder stands to lead this position group alongside TJ Dottery. As far as the secondary goes, Wydett Williams, Jr., and Sage Ryan provide a pretty good safety combo, but depth is also a concern, something that defensive coordinator Pete Goldin hopes to make up for in the arrival via transfer of Tavoy Feagin from Clemson.

Similar to the offensive side of the ball, talent is not the issue here. It’s getting all of it to mesh when it matters most.

The Bottom Line

If there’s one thing about Lane Kiffin’s teams at Ole Miss, it’s this. They can be an up-and-down group, and when they hit things at the right time, they’re hell on wheels. But when they don’t click, the results of head-scratching.

Last year, the Rebels loaded up in the transfer portal. Frown on all of that all you want, but it’s the way that the college football landscape is conquered these days, and Ole Miss’ plan to use it to get into the CFB appeared to be on track to work…until faceplanting against Florida.

Ole Miss has the talent to be good enough to host a postseason game. The key? Being consistent enough.

All of that said, don’t think for a moment that Georgia’s players have not forgotten being bum-rushed by fans after last year’s loss in Oxford. Oh, and I’m pretty sure Kirby Smart won’t be short on motivation for this game either, especially since Ole Miss comes to Athens this time. As Georgia’s head coach once said…“nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. They’ve got to come see us.”

Score Prediction: Georgia 28, Ole Miss 13