Ole Miss hopes Georgia win is springboard to success in 2025

ATLANTA – Lane Kiffin stuck to his word.

At last season’s SEC Media Days, Ole Miss’s head coach stood at the podium in Dallas and talked about the “length and size issue” his team faced when going against Alabama and Georgia. Kiffin said that disparity, which came to light in Georgia’s 52-17 romp over the Rebels in 2023, influenced how he built his roster for 2024.

Last year’s Ole Miss team returned the favor, dominating Georgia at the line of scrimmage on both sides in a 28-10 win in Oxford. Kiffin and the Rebels hope that win can be a springboard to new heights in 2025.

“Major belief, for sure,” said junior linebacker TJ Dottery of what that win gave the Rebels. “I think we all had the confidence that we could do that even going into that game. So it wasn’t a surprise. But just being able to set a standard to show that it’s possible that we can continue to do that.”

There’s a reason that win resonated in Oxford, sending fans clad in red and blue swarming onto the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium turf on that November afternoon.

Kiffin took over the Ole Miss program in 2020. The Rebels have lost all four meetings to the Crimson Tide under Kiffin. The two programs didn’t play last year.

When paired with the 2023 shellacking at the hands of Georgia, Ole Miss found itself unable to get past the two superpowers in the SEC. Then came last season’s victory that knocked the lid off.

The question now becomes, where do the Rebels go from here?

The Kiffin era has been good, no doubt. As Kiffin himself pointed out on Monday, the Rebels have enjoyed one of the winningest stretches in school history over the past few seasons and have been one of the most consistent squads in the SEC.

But after barely missing out on the College Football Playoff a season ago, thanks in part to a late-season upset loss to Florida, the Rebels want more this year.

Kiffin knows it won’t be easy.

“I just think that we basically restart each of these last few years because the turnover is so much in college football, which I wish it wasn’t that way and it shouldn’t be,” Kiffin said. “You should be able to build within your program a lot of returning players. It’s just the way the system is now; hopefully that gets fixed. I don’t think that’s really good for anybody. Not good for the kids to switch schools every year. Just makes us restart and not expect that they know anything because they’re coming from all these different places.”

Georgia will once again serve as one of the marquee matchups on the Ole Miss schedule. The Rebels travel to Athens on October 18.