While the talk about Ole Miss in recent weeks has not revolved around the football team or its accomplishments, the Rebels are one win away from making history.
Amid all of the drama surrounding head coach Lane Kiffin’s future with the program, or potential lack thereof, Ole Miss (10-1, 6-1 SEC) remains in the driver’s seat to make the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff. The Rebels, who did not play a game this past weekend, were bumped by Oregon and moved to No. 7 in the latest playoff poll.
If the postseason began today, the Rebels would host No. 10 Alabama in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Action for the 12-team field is scheduled to kick off with one game on Friday, Dec. 19, and three other contests occur the next day. The top four teams will earn a first-round bye.
While Ole Miss arguably has a better résumé than Oregon, the Ducks earned a win over a then-top-15 USC team on Saturday, plus the longer Kiffin goes without signing his extension or announcing a move to another program, the more it affects the Rebels’ standing by College Football Playoff committee members. And while 10 wins should have already rubber-stamped Ole Miss’ shot at competing for a title, there is a world in which the Rebels miss out on title contention with an Egg Bowl loss.
On the Kiffin front, the Ole Miss front man met with Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce this past Friday to discuss his next move — whether it be to remain put in Oxford or to pursue the head coaching gig at LSU or Florida, where his family members were escorted by jet for visits.
While there appears to be no clarity regarding who Kiffin will coach next year, and Monday’s press conference, where he refused to answer questions about his future, certainly did not provide any meaningful insight, Ole Miss has a final regular-season game on the docket. That game is no ordinary contest either. It’s one of the most bitter rivalries in college football, featuring two programs with no love lost for one another.
The outside noise may be loud, but a source tells SuperTalk Mississippi News that the locker room is unified in focusing on beating Mississippi State. Some players, including quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and decorated running back Kewan Lacy, have even taken to social media to confirm that the team is locked in — though the posts also had a pro-Kiffin slant.
Boyce added that, amid the drama surrounding Kiffin, he believes the Rebels’ pool of assistant coaches is “elite,” while attributing much of the team’s success and ability to remain focused on the rivalry to the head man’s understudies.
“That coaching staff is really where the players stay focused. That coaching staff is the one that keeps them grounded, and keeps them led, and makes sure that they’re prepared to play the game,” Boyce said on Mornings with Richard Cross. “I’m excited about the fact that this coaching staff has done this kind of job this year with this team.”
The annual Battle for the Golden Egg is in Starkville this year. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT, with ABC and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations airing the matchup. Ole Miss is currently a touchdown favorite over the Bulldogs.
The full College Football Playoff rankings can be found below:
- Ohio State
- Indiana
- Texas A&M
- Georgia
- Texas Tech
- Oregon
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
- Notre Dame
- Alabama
- BYU
- Miami
- Utah
- Vanderbilt
- Michigan
- Texas
- USC
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- Arizona State
- SMU
- Pittsburgh
- Georgia Tech
- Tulane
- Arizona
The rankings will be updated on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
