The Ole Miss Rebels' Lane Kiffin redemption story is one of College Football's best stories. The majority of USA Today's staff believes it will continue in the national championship against the Indiana Hoosiers. Ole Miss faces the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl and Indiana plays the Oregon Ducks in the Peach Bowl next Thursday and Friday, respectively.
The Rebels got two-thirds of USA Today's staff that predicted the CFP semifinals, while the Hoosiers got a unanimous vote of support to reach the next round. The one dissenting opinion on Ole Miss advancing, Craig Meyer, believes the team's coaching staff, which may lose offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., TE Coach/Co-OC Joe Cox, WR Coach/Passing Game Coordinator George McDonald, RB Coach Kevin Smith, Senior Analyst Dane Stevens, and Graduate Assistant Sawyer Jordan after a 2-0 run without Kiffin through their first two games, a Sugar Bowl win against the Georgia Bulldogs and a first-round home win over the Tulane Green Wave.
"At some point —and this may just be stubbornly holding on to a weeks-old opinion — the inherent instability and awkwardness of the Rebels' situation is going to be a factor, though it obviously hasn't through two games in the playoff. Trinidad Chambliss is mesmerizing, but he hasn't faced a pass rush quite as ferocious as Miami's and the Hurricanes' offense will do just enough to keep their run going all the way to the title game. The prospect of a turnover-filled dud for Carson Beck only makes me so confident in this pick, though," Meyer wrote.
The Grim Reaper may be coming for the Rebels in the Fiesta Bowl
It may be Ole Miss's time to pay the pied piper in the penultimate round of the College Football Playoff in Glendale, Arizona.
The Grim Reaper may be coming for the Rebels with so many position coaches gone. It's one thing for a motivational speaker selling snake oil to leave the locker room, but it's another for the guys who keep you in place to be replaced less than a week away from the big game.
The SEC hasn't had a representative in the CFP title game since 2023. That trend is almost certainly going to continue into year three with the Canes rolling on both sides of the ball and their pass rush likely to be Ole Miss's undoing.
The Rebs have been a great story until now. The U has been too. Only one can go on, and it just feels like Meyer's premonition on the Fiesta Bowl is the most trustworthy in that bunch.