The 2025 season has essentially arrived as Spring camp ends. For Ole Miss, this is good news. It’s hard to argue that the 2024 season wasn’t a disappointing one for the Rebels. What started with hopes of a College Football Playoff berth eventually flamed out and ended with a Gator Bowl win. But with the transfer portal closed, spring practice wrapped up, and teams looking towards summer, every program knows what they’re dealing with (for the most part) for the upcoming season. So, what can we ultimately expect from the 2025 Ole Miss Rebels?
Can the offense produce better than it did last season? If they do, it’ll be with a brand new group of guys. For the defense, can they find similar success to what they found in 2024?
As always, Lane Kiffin and Pete Golding hit the transfer portal hard this offseason. But only time will tell whether the pieces brought in can keep Ole Miss headed in the right direction.
The 2025 Ole Miss Rebels
What To Expect From the Rebel Offense in 2025
The first question surrounding the offense is the new quarterback, Austin Simmons. The Jaxson Dart era is over in Oxford, which leaves Simmons to be the guy. While he’s seen little playing time, he’s made the most of what he’s had to this point. Proof of that can be seen with his one drive against Georgia last season. When Dart went down with an injury, he led the Rebels to a touchdown and proved to be the jumpstart Ole Miss needed to ultimately down the Bulldogs. If he can prove to be an adequate replacement for Dart, expect the Rebel offense to pick up right where it left off.
Another question with the offense is the rushing attack. Let’s face it, it can’t get much worse. Which means the only way is up. The problem is that the struggles in the rushing game last season weren’t exactly due to talent deficiencies. It was more on coaching and not using guys that everyone knew should have been playing. A prime example of this is questioning why Ulysses Bentley IV essentially didn’t see the field at running back. Simply put, barring coaching malpractice, the Rebel ground game will be better in 2025. When this happens, the offense as a whole should be able to gel better and be more efficient than they were a year ago.
All around, expect the Ole Miss to look better than they did in 2024. At least from an efficiency standpoint. Much of the struggles last season seemed to come from a play-calling perspective. With a full year (and offseason) of hearing criticism and frustration, it seems likely the plan will have shifted a bit coming into 2025. While it will still be a Kiffin-led system, expect tweaks in the play calling that will mitigate some of the failures from a year ago. This should lead to improvements all over the field on that side of the ball.
Can the Ole Miss Defense Find Similar Success to 2024?
On the other side of the ball is the defense. In 2024, shocking to some, Ole Miss arguably had one of the best defenses in the country. They led the nation in sacks per game and tackles for loss per game. The Rebels also finished second in scoring defense, giving up just over 14 points per contest. Now the question is whether they can find similar success this season, despite losing a ton of production from that defense.
Consensus seems to be that they won’t be able to match that success. With the rebuild, especially along the front seven, it’s going to be extremely difficult. While they stayed active in the portal, the names you find along the Ole Miss front won’t provide the same star power that they did a year ago. There’s no Walter Nolen up front for the Rebels this year. But the pieces they did pick up are solid players, and should fit well into the system Golding has built for the Ole Miss defense. Guys like Princewill Umanmielen, brother of former Rebel Princely Umanmielen, and Da’Shawn Womack should provide much-needed relief up front. Then, with a guy like Suntarine Perkins returning at the linebacker position, the linebackers and back end of the defense should be decent, if not better than expected.
It’s almost foolish to expect the defense to play as well as they did last year. There are few programs out there that could lose what the Rebels lost, and still have a top defense in the country. The good news for Ole Miss is that if the offense improves, you won’t need quite as much success on the defensive side to be successful and win football games. Look for regression, but not to such a degree that it should be all that bothersome.
Realistic Expectations for the 2025 Ole Miss Rebels
Coming off two 10+ win seasons in the last three seasons, it’s tough to argue that expectations haven’t been raised in Oxford. But are those expectations fair in 2025?
On the front end, the answer is no. With the rebuild that’s taking place, it’s tough to imagine them pushing towards a 10 or 11-win season. However, with a favorable schedule, there’s a good chance they manage to surpass expectations this season.
For this Ole Miss Rebel team, the ceiling should be looking at an 11-1 season. This would leave fans overjoyed, regardless of where it would put them in the playoff picture, as it would show everything gel nearly perfectly. On the other end, the floor should be roughly 7-5. A season that only led to seven wins would have Rebel fans questioning what went wrong and how to get back to the success they’ve seen recently.
Anything less than seven wins, and we may see a meltdown of epic proportions in Oxford.
Main Image: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
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