The expectations are high in 2024 but this Ole Miss roster is built to handle the outside noise

Transfer portal and NIL has created a monster that is not close to being tamed anytime soon within the college football landscape yet somehow Ole Miss has a roster that has longevity despite being one of those teams that excel in the transfer era.

Lane Kiffin is entering his fifth season in Oxford and coming off yet another successful transfer offseason. This combined with the 11-win season and a Peach Bowl victory has the Rebels sitting pretty ahead of the 2024 season.

College Football Playoffs or bust is the bar of success being put on Ole Miss by outside noise and us media types. The bar is always that high within the walls of the Olivia and Archie Manning Performance Center ahead of each new season.

But this year those expectations and goals are realistically achievable with the Southeastern Conference and national championships well within reach for Ole Miss.

Plus, there is a one important element with this team: It is full of returners that are veterans within Kiffin’s program.

This Rebels roster is one that is experience-player heavy and understands how Kiffin expects things to operate. One valuable factor when it comes to handling outside noise as the season progresses.

“I think having years with these guys does help that,” Kiffin said during his media press conference on Wednesday. “Where if you have all this preseason hype and you’re in year one, maybe even year two, where you haven’t been around. So it’s like, ‘Okay, we have these and then we have to work on this culture part.’

“I do think we have a lot of groundwork on that and it’s important to have guys like Jaxson (Dart) and JJ (Pegues). They’ve been here a while with us so they know our expectations. They know how we think and then they do the same thing in the locker room and offseason workouts.”

Kiffin’s mindset and approach to how he runs the Ole Miss program is trickling down throughout the players.

Players like Dart and Pegues are leaders, along with a handful of players on both sides of the ball, but they are also transfers who did not start their careers in Oxford.

Kiffin is the master of the portal and dubbed ‘Portal King,’ but he is also having success in building a culture here players are settling into the ‘Velvet Ditch’ nicely and wanting to finish out their collegiate careers at Ole Miss.

While in an era where teams are looking different on a nearly monthly basis due to open season with the transfer portal the Rebels somehow look like that high school team that is loaded with juniors and seniors that have worked three to four years to get to this season.

Having this experience from players like Tre Harris is helping keep the perspective where it is supposed to be as the hype will only grow bigger as the wins start piling up in September.

“One of the things coach Kiffin told us (on Tuesday) before we even started today was we’re a team with a lot of older guys,” Harris said. “One thing that a lot of us understand is you have to have a certain culture on the team in order to be successful. Whenever we strap up we just go out there and play. Go out there, no whining and no complaining.”

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