Ole Miss Rebels Football: Phil Steele 2025 Forecast

Ole Miss has won double-digit games in three of the past four seasons with the records being three of their best in program history in The ‘Sip. However, the Rebels will have to overcome a lot of roster turnover to do it again in 2025.

Phil Steele has released his annual preview magazine going into the upcoming season in college football. Within the pages was an assessment of what this fall for Ole Miss with a lot of questions asked about the Rebs with what all they lost from last season’s team that went 10-3 and was within reach of making the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff.

Here’s Steele’s look at Ole Miss coming into this season that’ll be the school’s sixth under Lane Kiffin:

Offense

Ole Miss, led by QB Jaxson Dart, RBs Henry Parrish and Ulysses Bentley, and a pass-catching corps of Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins, Juice Wells, and TE Cade Prieskorn, averaged 38.6 points and 526.5 yards per game last season, which rated them third and second respectively in the country as one of the best units in the nation. That said, with all of those names, plus several offensive linemen, now gone, Steele is expecting it the Rebels to take an obvious step back as they’re now led by QB Austin Simmons.

“This year they lost QB Dart (3Y starter) and drop to 78 career starts on the OLine,” wrote Steele. “The WR corps is deep and there is plenty of talent but they are less experienced and will not match last year’s numbers.”

Defense

As good as Ole Miss was offensively, their defense was as productive or better by allowing just 14.4 points and 311.2 yards per game, which ranked second and fourteenth respectively nationally. Still, that unit is also all-new with the losses of names like LB Chris Paul, DE Princely Umanmielen, DT Walter Nolen, DE Jared Ivey, CB Trey Amos, DT JJ Pegues, and S Trey Washington among others.

“This year just one starter returns from last year’s (defense) and while they have talent they will not match last year’s lofty numbers,” Steele wrote.

2025 Forecast

Again, Ole Miss has won double-digit games in three seasons so far this decade for the best run in the school’s history, including last year when they did beat No. 3 Georgia but lost three games in the end to be the third team out of the CFP. They could push for ten-plus wins again with the talent they return and bring in from the third-best portal class and a top-twenty recruiting class, especially if they capitalize in conference play with games against other top teams like LSU, South Carolina, and Florida at Vaught-Hemingway. That’ll take a lot, though, for essentially an all-new team from last season to this one for the Rebels.

“Kiffin has brought in a lot of talent (through) the portal again but this year the defense is nowhere near as experienced and they go from a 3 years starting quarterback to inexperience,” Steele wrote. “The schedule is still manageable and the talent remains strong so this team is very capable of making it 3 in a row for (double-digit) win seasons if they take care of business in key home games.”