100 Days Out: Ole Miss firmly in the conversation for college football’s top prizes
Rat poison or not, depending on one’s viewpoint, but the truth is Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin and Jaxson Dart are major players in the upcoming college football season.
The 2024 campaign is 100 days away from getting started for a handful of teams that will play on August 24, but the Rebels will get their season underway a week later against Furman.
With the new season hitting the milestone mark on the countdown ESPN provided several Top 10 lists on Thursday that heavily feature Ole Miss its fifth-year head coach and third-year starting quarterback.
Another top transfer class and one of the best roster retention offseasons in program history with Dart leading a large group of players determined to make 2024 a season to remember in Oxford.
The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is fueling the buzz for Ole Miss this Fall and ESPN is cognizant of that. Two of those Top 10 lists are about the CFP with the topic being first time playoff teams and contenders for a CFP bye.
In each of the aforementioned lists the Rebels find themselves in the Top 5. ESPN considers them the No. 1 team to earn its first CFP berth and the fifth best team to contend for a bye into the second round.
Adding eight new teams also means the playoffs are expanding by two rounds with the top four-ranked teams getting to skip the first round. Those teams that are ranked No. 5-8 host the No. 9-12 teams in an extra home game on December 20 and 21. From there the CFP will shift to New Year’s Six locations.
Ole Miss would love an extra week off and not starting its CFP run until New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. A bye would also mean the Rebels would go at least a month between the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State and the second round, or less if they make it to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.
Kiffin and Dart are receiving as much buzz, individually, as Ole Miss is from ESPN’s Top 10 lists
One of the lists is for the Top 10 coaches to watch and Kiffin finds himself at No. 6. Sherrone Moore (Michigan), Dave Aranda (Baylor), Billy Napier (Florida), Ryan Day (Ohio State) and Kalen DeBoer (Alabama) are all ahead of Kiffin.
“The Lane Train is never boring, but he recently has added more substance to the entertainment factor,” ESPN said of Kiffin. “After two AP top-12 finishes in the past three seasons, Ole Miss made a significant push in the portal/NIL space and should deliver a team capable of earning the school’s first CFP berth.”
Heisman hype continues to mount for Dart months before he throws a pass in a game. ESPN is not shying away from naming the Ole Miss signal caller as a contender or dark horse. He is ranked No. 6 in the Top 10 list of Heisman contenders.
Ohio State’s Will Howard, Dillon Gabriel (Oregon), Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Carson Beck (Georgia) are all listed ahead of Dart.
“If you want a dark-horse Heisman pick, I think Jaxson Dart is a really good choice,” Max Chadwick said Monday on PFF’s College Football Show.
There is also some buzz for sophomore linebacker Suntarine Perkins. He is included in the Top 10 breakout players and listed at No. 4.
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