Bio Blast: Ole Miss Rebels

The first significant moment of Kentucky’s schedule has arrived. We did not have to wait long for our first big game week. Recent history tells us that this Week 2 matchup — and only SEC conference game on the slate — will come down to the wire despite the large betting spread.

Lane Kiffin is now in year six at Ole Miss. The viral social media star has won 44 games in five years and led this program to three double-digit win season over the last four seasons. The team that did not finish with double-digit victories was 8-1 in November and ranked No. 11 when a home contest against Alabama started a four-game losing streak to end the season. The Rebels had a legit top-five team last year but couldn’t make the playoff. A reset seems likely in 2025, but the winning should continue with eight home games and a very favorable slate outside of a trip to Georgia in mid-October.

KSR’s Bio Blast is taking our first close look at this SEC program with coaching continuity, a potential star quarterback, and a transfer portal strategy that has not changed.

The Austin Simmons era has arrived in Oxford

Austin Simmons was a blue-chip recruit in football who also had a potential professional baseball career in the 2025 high school recruiting cycle. The quarterback had a competitive recruitment that led to a commitment to Florida in April 2023 before ultimately flipping to Ole Miss in June 2023. The top-100 overall recruit then decided to reclassify to the 2023 cycle so he could enroll at Ole Miss immediately at age 17.

Simmons went from a sophomore in high school to backup quarterback at an SEC program immediately. The quarterback was able to do this because he was co-enrolled at Miami Dade College during high school and was earning credits.

The quarterback took a redshirt year in the 2023-24 football season as QB3. That spring, the dual-threat star pitched in 13 games (14 IP, 3.21 ERA, 20 K, 11 BB) for the Ole Miss baseball team before deciding to focus on football. Simmons backed up Jaxson Dart as a redshirt freshman in 2024 during the fall semester and then received a bachelor’s degree from Ole Miss following the spring semester. The left-handed quarterback is now a graduate student as he begins his redshirt sophomore season in Oxford.

Ole Miss added Dart from the transfer portal in Lane Kiffin’s first full offseason but the working plan has always been for Simmons to take over at QB. That is now happening at age 19 for the ballyhooed prospect. The arm talent and positional athleticism on a 6-foot-4 frame that made Simmons such a coveted prospect is now starting to be displayed.

Off the bench….3rd & 7+….biggest game of season vs. UGA….30th career attempt 1 day after his 19th birthday….bad snap….post-snap coverage rotation….

Beyond impressive from Ole Miss QB Austin Simmons pic.twitter.com/OQ0IaR37p6

— Brent Rollins (@BrentRollinsPhD) July 26, 2025

Simmons led Ole Miss on a touchdown drive in his only action against Georgia last season while also receiving some passing reps in blowout wins over Arkansas and Duke. The expectations are high — as they are for any Kiffin quarterback — and there was some good stuff (341 passing yards) in Week 1 despite two interceptions and one fumble in 66 snaps during his first start.

The young quarterback is the future for this program, and he will be making his first road start on Saturday. Ole Miss will likely go as Simmons goes this season.

Another big transfer portal class

We’re not sure if it was self-proclaimed or not, but Lane Kiffin does have “The Portal King” nickname for a reason. Perhaps not program in college football leans on the transfer portal yearly in roster-building more than Ole Miss. This year was no exception.

The Rebels added 32 scholarship transfers to the roster with this offseason with 24 players joining the program at the mid-year break and eight other additions coming in the spring window. That class was all over the field in Week 1.

Of those additions, 19 played at least 20 snaps in the blowout win over Georgia State in Week 1. Missouri tailback transfer Kyren Lacy rushed for 108 yards and three touchdowns. Penn State wide receiver transfer Harrison Wallace III led the offense with five receptions for 130 yards. Alabama transfer Caleb Odom added four receptions as he moves from wideout to flex tight end. Oklahoma State wide receiver transfer D’Zhaun Stribling reeled in three receptions and is expected to have a big role in this passing game. Arkansas transfer Patrick Kutas and Charlotte transfer PJ Wilkins started at guard. Marshall linebacker transfer Jaden Yates, LSU EDGE transfer Da’Shawn Womack, ULM safety trnsfer Wydett Williams Jr., and Missouri State linebacker transfer Tahj Chambers all recorded at least five tackles in their Ole Miss debut.

Ole Miss will have first-year transfers all over the field in this matchup. Once again, this program will go as this transfer portal class goes.

The offensive line appears to be a team weakness

Offensive line play has not been a strength for Ole Miss since Lane Kiffin’s arrival. The Rebels have not produced a draft pick from this position room since Greg Little (2nd round) Javon Patterson (7th round) were taken in the seventh-round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Despite consistently stacking good transfer portal recruiting wins, this offense and team has had to score points and win football games without ever really half a good offensive line.

That probably will not change in 2025.

Ole Miss is starting two first-year transfers at guard and Brycen Sanders is a first-year starter at center as a redshirt sophomore. Despite scoring 63 points and rolling up 8.6 yards per play in a Week 1 blowout win over Georgia State, the Rebels five non-sack tackles for loss and Simmons faced some heat from the pass rush. On top of that, this group did not have a great fall camp.

“That spot is struggling with a lot of injuries,” Kiffin said. “I don’t think they’re really long-term injuries. So, we are struggling number-wise there. Guys are having to play different spots. They’re doing a good job, but it’s not ideal by any means.”

The first big test for this group will occur on Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field. Kentucky dominated the point of attack matchup in this contest last year, and that was a big reason why the Cats pulled off a monster update. If that happens again with a quarterback making his first road start, UK could find itself in great position.

The Ole Miss offensive line seems to be the weakest unit on this football team. Ole Miss can win and score points in their spread tempo system with subpar offensive line play but it does make everything more difficult.

Run defense has been a problem for this program

Ole Miss went all-in to try and win a national championship in 2024. The big spending nearly worked. Lane Kiffin’s offense is always going to get most of the attention but the jump on defense was the most impressive. The Rebels added four first-year transfers to the starting lineup on defense that would go on to become draft. With first-round pick Walter Nolen leading the way at defensive tackle, the Rebels made a huge jump in multiple areas but the run defense stood out.

Ole Miss ranked inside the top five nationally last year in EPA/rush, non-sack yards per rush, and rushing success rate. That seems to be the exception to the rule.

From 2021-23, Ole Miss never ranked better than No. 59 in non-sack yards per rush, No. 75 in EPA/rush, and No. 79 in rushing success rate. Run defense was a problem under defensive coordinator DJ Durkin. Current defensive coordinator Pete Golding helped provide improvement in 2023 before the big jump year in 2024.

But the first game told us that there could be some hard regression to the mean for this run defense without a ton of ready-made draft picks in the starting lineup this season.

Georgia State rushed for 195 non-sack yards on 5.7 yards per rush. The success rate (33.3%) was poor for the Sun Belt squad, but the tailbacks did produce 152 yards on 23 carries (6.61 yards per rush) with only one tackle for loss produced against the traditional run game. The Panthers finished the game with 191 total rushing yards via traditional stats. That’s 27 more yards than any other offense produced against Ole Miss all season last year.

The defensive front is more proven than the offensive front in Oxford but a step back for this run defense could be large. In a matchup against a Kentucky offense that wants to hammer the rock with a rebuilt offensive line and two big tailbacks, the home underdog could find an advantage in the traditional run game.

In a matchup where pace of play is going to be everything, Kentucky could dictate the terms of the game if they are able to establish some run efficiency with some explosive plays sprinkled in.