Lane Kiffin has been dubbed the Portal King but thus far, results have not paid off thus far — at least on the biggest stage. Ole Miss has accomplished a ton with Kiffin as their head coach but making the College Football Playoff is certainly the next step. Kiffin acknowledged the Rebels were behind after losing to Georgia last year and took his game to another level this offseason.
Now, seemingly having one of the best rosters in college football, Ole Miss is hoping to perform. Making it to Atlanta for the SEC Championship certainly has to be the goal, competing with the conference’s best teams. If Kiffin can pull off the feat, one anonymous head coach believes it will be the “success story” of the transfer portal era.
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“If they can make it to Atlanta and go to the Payoff, it will be the success story of the portal era,” a coach said via the Athlon preseason magazine. I think it takes a certain kind of personality to manage a portal culture on your roster and Lane Kiffin has it where someone like a Jimbo Fisher does not.”
Ole Miss may have made the loudest splash of the offseason when former Texas A&M defensive lineman Walter Nolen committed. The On3 Industry Transfer Portal Rankings had him as the No. 2 overall player, while EDGE Princely Umanmielen was not too far behind at No. 12. Two critical members in the front seven expected to cause havoc.
Even the returning talent Ole Miss has coming back enters through the portal. Jaxson Dart is in his third year of the program but was formerly at USC. Tre Harris is back after a near 1,000-yard season at wide receiver. The coach is high on what the Rebels have to offer.
“Offensively they’re absolutely stacked,” the same coach said. “Defensively, they’re better year over year with [Pete] Golding coming in. The real change that NIL and the portal created for them is the front seven talent.”
Now, there was some pushback from the anonymous coach, saying Ole Miss’ roster may not be at the same level of the perceived top two teams in the SEC. The high school recruiting level has not been up to that level, finishing No. 20 overall in both of the last two cycles.
Kiffin is banking on finding college-experienced players, hoping to pull off something the program has never done — play in the SEC Championship and compete for a national championship.
“Are they Georgia? Are they Texas? Probably not. They don’t have the kind of developmental system those elite programs have. The experiment they’re running is: Can you rent one?”
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