This weekend was nothing short of wild in the college football world. Vanderbilt pulled off the biggest upset of the year so far with their victory over Alabama. Arkansas snuck past Tennessee. Missouri got throttled on the road by Texas A&M. Miami traveled 3,000 miles and had to come from 25 points down in the second half to knock off Cal. Which is why, though it has nothing to do with them specifically, there’s now optimism at Ole Miss once again.
Following an Ole Miss loss to Kentucky a week and a half ago, things were glum in Oxford. Fans were frustrated. It looked like the season was going off the rails. After all, they had just been physically dominated by what is expected to be an average Kentucky team. There were injury concerns. And with a road trip to South Carolina coming up, there wasn’t much room for optimism.
However, Ole Miss answered the bell and came out this weekend looking more like the team most people expected to see in the offseason. It ended with a 27-3 Rebel victory and a successful road trip. And when you throw in the chaos that happened elsewhere throughout the college football landscape, it’s hard for Ole Miss fans not to feel optimistic moving forward.
An Ugly, Yet Dominating Win
It was a big win, but it was still far from perfect for Ole Miss. The offense still looks out of sorts. Jaxson Dart doesn’t look like himself. Tre Harris is now battling some injury questions. The same can be said for Henry Parrish Jr. And we still have no idea what is happening to Ulysses Bentley IV, and why he’s seeing no carries. Lane Kiffin also won’t give any real details surrounding that situation. But they still put up 27 points on a decent South Carolina defense. And in all honesty, it easily could’ve been more.
On the defensive side of the ball, it was a Pete Golding special. With Golding as a defensive coordinator, a few things are almost guaranteed. Number one is that the defense is going to give up more yards than the talent dictates they should. Number two is that those yards rarely lead to points. It’s a “bend but don’t break” mentality. Alabama fans saw it for years, and now Ole Miss fans are getting used to it.
Is it stressful and frustrating at times? For sure. But for Rebel fans, as long as the team wins, they don’t really care. This weekend’s win proved to be a prime example of that.
So where is the cautious optimism coming from?
Chaos Afoot In the SEC
A week after looking like a bottom-half team in the SEC in the loss to Kentucky, Ole Miss once again looks like it can compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Is that necessarily due to their play on the field? Not at all. It has more to do with what we’ve now seen from everyone around them. That is, no one looks truly dominant, except for potentially Texas.
Alabama showed that Georgia is beatable. Vanderbilt then anchors down and beats Alabama the very next week. Arkansas takes care of Tennessee after the Volunteers look like a top-five team for much of the first half of the season. What do we make of Missouri now? No one knows. It’s all madness.
And in the SEC, it’s almost assured that three or four teams are going to be represented in the 12-team playoff. You don’t have to be the best, just one of the best. And Texas is now the lone undefeated team in the conference. That being said, if you assume Texas is likely going to be one of the teams in, there’s realistically probably eight other teams competing for two or three other spots.
Can Ole Miss Get One of Those Spots?
The schedule gets tougher. They still travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU. They also have trips to Fayetteville and Gainesville remaining. And their home slate still has Oklahoma and Georgia. LSU, Georgia, and Oklahoma are all very much alive in the playoff discussion, at least for now. So it’s certain to be a tall task for the Rebels.
However, if they play up to their talent level, there’s certainly a decent chance they can get there. But if they play like they did against Kentucky, and at times against South Carolina, that chance undoubtedly decreases. In the end, Ole Miss essentially controls their own destiny the rest of the way. Anything less than 5-1 to close out the season and they’re out.
To be at the halfway point of the season and still be very much in contention has to feel good. So the optimism should be there. But with the ups and downs we’ve seen from this team over the past two weeks, that optimism should be cautious, at best.
