Coming off one of the best seasons in school history along with the offseason that they’ve had, Ole Miss’ stock is high coming into 2024. Greg McElroy is certainly buying in on some of that from out of The ‘Sip too considering what the schedule looks like for the Rebels.
McElroy examined the slate in Oxford during a recent episode of ‘Always College Football’. He started with a game-by-game layout of their dozen games, which is a major point in why he feels many are high on them this fall.
“Part of the reason why I think so many people are bullish on them is their schedule feels manageable. We’ll start with Furman – that’s a win. Middle Tennessee? That’s a win. They’ll go to Wake Forest – fairly manageable roadtrip there in the non-conference. They’ll get Georgia Southern at home,” said McElroy. “There’s really no reason why Ole Miss shouldn’t start the season at least 4-0.”
“Then they’ll get Kentucky at home – will be a tricky game. At South Carolina – very tricky game. At LSU – very tricky game,” McElroy said. “Oklahoma comes to them on October 26th. They’re at Arkansas, they have Georgia at home, they’re at Florida, and then they finally finish the season with The Egg Bowl.”
McElroy then went back through and picked the wins versus the losses. There are several toss-ups throughout their conference schedule but he doesn’t see more than a few defeats overall as he deemed around five as losable matchups.
“The way we’ve done this in the past, kind of going through what games are losable? We know the automatic wins – Furman, Middle Tennessee, Georgia Southern. Granted, could they lose one of those? Sure. Anything is possible but let’s just give it them for the process of this exercise,” said McElroy. “Let’s give them a 4-0 start, including a win on the road at Wake Forest.”
“I do think the Kentucky game is losable, I think at South Carolina is losable, I think at LSU is losable,” McElroy continued. “At Florida, I think, is a tricky one. Mississippi State is a tricky one. We know the Georgia game is really tough as well. Oklahoma at home. So, a lot of games that I think that are losable but I think there’s only about five that are legitimately losable. I’m not saying that they lose all five. I think that they probably win four of the five in some cases, maybe three of the five in some cases.”
With that being the case, another double-digit win season could be there for Ole Miss. That would also put them in contention in the conference and for the College Football Playoff, which would be all of the goals for the Rebels heading into the year.
“They’ve been to multiple New Year’s Six Bowls. But this is the first year where it really feels like, coming into the season? It feels a little bit for Ole Miss like it’s playoff or bust,” said McElroy.
“10-2 for the Ole Miss Rebels? Probably not in the SEC Championship but more than likely en route to the College Football Playoff. It’s just a matter of who those losses come to,” McElroy said. “You look at the schedule? It lays out pretty nicely for Ole Miss.
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