How close are the Rebels to a national championship
As a lifelong Ole Miss fan, I can remember as far back as the early 2000s when a kid from New Orleans, Louisiana, stepped in as a center for the Rebels, which led to the most incredible career of any Rebels quarterback.
Why did I start with this point?
I was born in the 90s and grew up only 30 miles north of Oxford. I watched Eli Manning take Mississippi football by storm. But not even the Maxwell Award winner, which goes to the best quarterback that season, could lead the Rebels close to a Bowl Championship Series.
My early recollection of being an Ole Miss fan is that our national championship for years was the Cotton Bowl. In 2008, the Rebels had a shaky start to the season until arguably the biggest upset in school history occurred when the Rebels went to the swamp and took down the eventual national champs that year, the Florida Gators.
Though no matter how large the victory was for the program, the Rebels ended that year with a big-time Cotton Bowl victory over one of the most explosive offenses in college football history, the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Fast forward to 2024, and two New Year Six victories later, the Rebels can now do something they haven’t done in 61 years. The Rebels stand with the 5th best odds to win the CFP championship. The Rebels return 16 starters from the 2023 season, not to mention finishing second in the transfer portal rankings.
I’m not going to lie that 2014 and 2015 teams gave the Rebel faithful much optimism. Still, the buzz heading into this year is off the scale, which makes you wonder if it is finally the year the Rebels end their national championship drought and stamp their name in college football history.