SPIRIT’S PICKS: How will the Ole Miss football season go in 2023?
The 2023 college football season is a little under three months away but the summer time is the perfect time to gaze into the crystal ball and see what Ole Miss’ fortunes might be.
With the toughest schedule in all of college football Ole Miss has the expections of a .500 season all the way up to another 10-win regular season, it is true, thus making the Rebels possibly the most interesting team to watch in all of the country this fall.
Lane Kiffin is back for a fourth season and set to make this his longest tenured coaching job of his career, hello October 7, and once again has a potentially potent offense at his disposal with a mix of returners and transfer portal additions.
The defense looks stout up front but the next two levels have some proving to do, which is part of why the Ole Miss win-loss predictions are not very high by the prognosticators and experts out West.
Here at The Ole Miss Spirit we are all a tad more bullish on the season prospects of the Rebels. We expect a fourth straight bowl berth under Kiffin’s watch and possibly a better one than lat year’s trip to Houston.
BEN GARRETT — OLE MISS SPIRIT EDITOR (9-3)
Ole Miss football has a wide range of potential win-loss outcomes in 2023.
But somehow I ended up at 9-3.
I know, and I agree. 9-3? Too rich. But I shot off at the hip when I was putting this together and 9-3 is somehow where I ended up. Ole Miss has the toughest schedule in the country next season. One could easily make just as persuasive a case for 6-6.
Vegas has Ole Miss’ win total at 7.5. There’s a reason Vegas is always right. But hope springs eternal in June and I’m vibing as I sit on the beach with the family.
W — Mercer — I mean, come on.
W — at Tulane — Tulane is a good football team and a scary non-con opponent for Ole Miss in 2023. But the day the Rebels start worrying about the Green Wave under Lane Kiffin in preseason predictions is the day some tough conversations will need to be had.
W — Georgia Tech — I honestly talked myself into Ole Miss as a national title contender last season with the way the Rebels demolished the Yellowjackets in Atlanta. Little did I know …
L — at Alabama — Legit can’t name three Alabama skill players, which speaks more to my own incompetence than how good or bad the Crimson Tide could be next year. I simply always default to Ole Miss losing to Alabama because, well, Ole Miss, historically, loses to Alabama.
L — LSU — Don’t even know if it’s a hot take anymore: I think LSU wins the West. I also think the Tigers lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
W — Arkansas — KJ Jefferson is the recruiting misevaluation that continues to haunt, but Ole Miss has a better roster. So, I’ll say the never-ending cycle of weird games between these teams goes the Rebels’ way this time.
W — at Auburn — Already dreading this week and the coverage that’s coming. The nauseating self-bloviating an Ole Miss loss would bring is too much for me to consider right now.
W — Vanderbilt — Ole Miss beats Vanderbilt. Ole Miss also typically allows Vanderbilt to frustratingly hang around and sometimes win. But Ole Miss beats Vanderbilt.
W — Texas A&M — The Aggies are going to be better. But the marriage of Jimbo Fisher and Bobby Petrino has next-level dumpster-fire potential.
L — at Georgia — Georgia has replaced Alabama as the Thanos of college football. Sneaky-fun matchup, though. Gives off similar vibes to Ole Miss-Alabama in 2020.
W — UL Monroe — Lookin’ like a layup, as my guy Big K.R.I.T. would say.
W — at Mississippi State — The Egg Bowl is always messy and never fun. And I long for the day when it stops being played on Thanksgiving. Ole Miss better win this game. We’ll leave it at that for now.
CHUCK ROUNSAVILLE — OLE MISS SPIRIT PUBLISHER (9-3)
Disclaimer: Anyone who has been a subscriber of ours for any length of time knows I do not like to make predictions due to all of the variables of what can happen in a season and my unrealistic optimism about everything Rebel.
But the powers that be at ON3 asked each of us at The Spirit to do a prediction piece, so we will gladly oblige.
My heart says 12-0. My brain begrudgingly says otherwise.
Note: The Rebels will not go into a game this year that I won’t THINK they will win, even including Georgia, despite this three-loss prediction.
Mercer – With all due respect to those youngsters and their coaches, who we are sure work just as hard as the Rebels – no way that is anything but a Rebel win. No way.
Tulane- Although the Green Wave had a marvelous year in 2022 and although they are hosting the Rebels in New Orleans, they don’t have the firepower they did a year ago and the Rebels will just be too much for them.
Georgia Tech – The Yellow Jackets will not hang with the Rebels in Oxford. They will be outclassed athletically, just as they were last year at home.
Alabama – The only reason I’m giving this one to the Tide is because it is in Tuscaloosa and even though I’m giving them the nod, I believe the Rebels have a real good shot at beating Bama this year. Bryce Young and Will Anderson, after all, are both gone.
LSU – If the Rebs don’t beat Alabama, it will be hard to get up for a very well-coached Tiger squad. LSU in a close one, probably, while I bite my tongue over this prediction.
Arkansas – Even though the Hogs always give the Rebs all they want, it will be a Rebel win this time around to break a two-game losing skid.
Auburn – Bryan Harsin left Hugh Freeze with a very suspect roster. The Rebs get an SEC road win, maybe in easy fashion.
Vanderbilt – Should be no contest. Rebs by a mile.
Texas A&M – Sorry, Jimbo, but you will go back to Texas with a crushing loss.
Georgia – Too much talent and too much home field advantage. A game Rebel squad comes up short.
ULM – Sleepwalking to a Reb win.
Mississippi State – The Rebels will get the Egg back.
JAKE THOMPSON — STAFF WRITER (10-2)
Why have a prediction piece and not be bold?
It would be a disservice if I did not buy in to what I wrote a few weeks back about Ole Miss having a path to 10 wins. There is a way, but it is one that requires a lot of dominoes to go the way of the Rebels.
I also can easily see the predictions of Ben, Chuck and Zach all being correct as well. But with all of the national pundits viewing Ole Miss with a 7-win ceiling eight wins or higher apparently is overachieving.
To me it feels more like the accurate assessment of how the season will go for Ole Miss. But, back to my bold guess and how the Rebels get there.
MERCER – Thanks for coming, Bears. Parting gifts at the door
GEORGIA TECH — The Yellowjackets had a rough afternoon in Atlanta last year and I do not see this year in Oxford going much better.
TULANE — First road trip of the season and it is to New Orleans and the Green Wave. They were the fun, sexy pick of a team last year but I think Ole Miss leaves the Big Easy with a third straight win.
ALABAMA — Back to opening conference play with the Crimson Tide and with it Kiffin’s next chance to beat Nick Saban. I think this is the year, or I have indigestion.
LSU — Brian Kelly’s first trip to Oxford and it is a doozy of one. This feels like a big-time SEC matchup, as it should. But does the hangover of beating Alabama loom? I think so, unfortunately. (hey, Ole Miss has to lose two in this theory, remember).
ARKANSAS — Ole Miss and Kiffin remember the shootout that was two years and and neither wants a repeat. The Rebels shutdown KJ Jefferson’s final return back to the home area.
AUBURN — Looking at this one on the schedule poster hanging in my office gives me the aforementioned indigestion every time. Kiffin goes in on a mission and hands Hugh Freeze a loss that stings.
VANDERBILT — Homecoming is a good one for Ole Miss and the Commodores do not create much stress like last season in Nashville.
TEXAS A&M — The Twitter war between Kiffin and Jimbo Fisher returns to the field and Ole Miss sends the Aggies back to College Station with a loss and hurt feelings.
GEORGIA — Yeah, the fun stops hear as this is the second loss on the year. The pit in my stomach thinks this might be a close one and a fun one but the Bulldogs win it at home.
ULM — The final cannon fodder on the schedule and Ole Miss handles the War Hawks with ease.
MISSISSIPPI STATE — An Egg Bowl that has interesting meanings this year as Lane Kiffin returns to Starkville but without friend and the late great coach Mike Leach on the other sideline. Ole Miss gets the Golden Egg back and Kiffin moves to 3-1 against the in-state rivals.
ZACH BERRY — STAFF WRITER (8-4)
Ole Miss returns a ton on offense and have added several big-time playmakers at tight end and wide receiver. I anticipate Jaxson Dart taking a big step forward with the additions of Caden Prieskorn, Tre Harris and Zakhari Franklin. Oh and then there’s that Quinshon Judkins dude.
Defensively, there will be some struggles with a new scheme and lack of quality depth but I think Pete Golding will be able to work his magic down the stretch. I think Ole Miss goes undefeated in the non-conference and has an impressive run in conference play as well.
Road blocks at Alabama and Georgia and toss-ups with LSU and Texas A&M make this a tough one to call, but I am going 8-4 due to the lack of elite dudes on defense. But I expect the Rebels to make the Crimson Tide sweat in September and the Aggies to have to earn it in Oxford.
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