By Brian Scott Rippee

From Rippee Writes

The most anticipated football season in a generation is nearly a week underway as Ole Miss began fall camp six days ago. Here are some thoughts I had last week on the eve of the Rebels starting preseason camp that I just now finalized.

How will Ole Miss handle being The Hunted?

This isn’t really a storyline that will flesh itself out in preseason camp, but rather one to ponder throughout the entirety of what is sure to be an entertaining fall.

One of the many reasons this offseason has been unique is simply how the Rebels are perceived by the media. Ole Miss was picked to finish fourth in a loaded SEC that welcomes two new members: Texas and Oklahoma. The Rebels were picked behind only Georgia, Texas and Alabama — two of last year’s four playoff teams, and probably the actual best team (Georgia) in 2023 who lost one game and became a victim to a flawed system.

It’s an unfamiliar place for an Ole Miss program that has had its fair share of highs and lows over the last quarter century. It’s a program that’s seen plenty of success between some lean years, but most of its successful seasons have blossomed from exceeding expectations, like Houston Nutt’s maiden voyage in 2008, Lane Kiffin’s 10-2 mark in 2021 and even last year’s record-setting 11-win mark — when most rational prognosticators were debating a path to eight wins in July and August. Hugh Freeze’s 2014 and 2015 seasons shouldn’t go without mention, but those two campaigns, particularly 2015, featured a couple of head-scratching losses that still make them hard to quantify when juxtaposed to preseason expectations.

The only season in my lifetime that comes to mind in terms of heightened preseason expectations was 2009. That year, the Rebels entered the season ranked 8th in the AP poll, lost a frustrating road test on a Thursday night to South Carolina in the season’s third week and stumbled to an 8-4 record that culminated in an embarrassing 41-24 Egg Bowl loss to a 5-7 Mississippi State team led by first-year head coach Dan Mullen. I am not sure you can make a good-faith argument that the 2009 team had a more talented roster and a more realistic path toward winning a title than this team. Of course, a lot of that is circumstance and how this enthralling yet stupidly-managed sport has changed over the 15 years between the two aforementioned seasons, but the point remains.

The preseason expectations surrounding an Ole Miss team fresh off of an 11-win season are fairly unprecedented. In what world does this team *exceed* the expectations bestowed upon them by fans and media alike? Making the 12-team playoff? Is that considered meeting or exceeding expectations? I’d argue the former, while the latter likely means… winning a game in the playoff and being eight quarters away from winning a national title? This thought exercise is not intended to dampen any well-warranted excitement, but rather emphasized the rarified air Lane Kiffin has brought this Ole Miss program into.

If anything, it’s a reminder to enjoy every second of this journey over the next five months.

What makes this year different?

Kiffin’s cutting-edge approach to the transfer portal has been well-documented here. He has been dubbed the Transfer Portal King long before the 2023-2024 offseason occurred. Kiffin’s ability to get the fanbase to buy into what he’s selling, has also been well-documented, as has the revolutionary work of the Grove Collective.

His success in this new college football ecosystem has brought forth warranted excitement entering every season he’s been in Oxford, besides his initial year that included that whole global pandemic thing no one wants to rehash.