Most of the credit for the Ole Miss Rebels’ recent rise to relevancy has been given to head coach Hugh Freeze, and that credit is well-deserved. After all, Ole Miss was 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the SEC in 2011, the year before Freeze’s arrival in Oxford. By 2012, Freeze already had Ole Miss in a bowl game with a winning record.

It’s obvious Freeze made a tremendous impact on the program in a short amount of time, bringing in three straight top 40 recruiting classes (and back to back top 20 classes) to become one of the most respected coaches in the SEC in less than three full seasons.

However, not enough credit for the Rebels success goes to this year’s seniors — the last remaining players to predate Freeze’s tenure with the program. Those fourth- and fifth-year seniors experienced the worst of times before the coaching change in late 2011, and they’ve experienced the best of times in three straight bowl appearances the last three years.

Many of those seniors have developed into superstars in the SEC, including SEC interceptions leader Senquez Golson, All-American safety Cody Prewitt, starting wideout Vince Sanders and starting linebackers Serderius Bryant and Deterrian Shackelford.

Those veterans and others lie at the core of the Rebels’ budding program, serving as the last remaining links to a darker time in the program’s history. Their experiences during an 0-8 run in the SEC prepared them to lead a team that began this season 7-0 and rose to as high as No. 3 in the national polls.

It was Golson who pulled in the game-winning interception in the Rebels’ victory over Alabama earlier this season, which remains the program’s greatest win since the turn of the century, maybe ever. It was Sanders who stepped up as the No. 1 wideout following Laquon Treadwell’s season-ending injury, posting 110 yards and two touchdowns in the Rebels’ first game without Treadwell.

It was Shackelford who had the resiliency to overcome not one but two devastating knee injuries to return as the heart and soul of the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense, and it was Prewitt who earned All-American status as one of the most disciplined and surest-tackling safeties in the country.

These are not just role players supplementing the wealth of talent Freeze has attracted to Oxford; they’re star players who will leave their fingerprints all over this season’s historic run.

At the end of the day, everything Ole Miss has accomplished this season and everything it may still accomplish in the coming weeks was been and will be accomplished by a collective team. Few teams in the SEC have played with the unity Ole Miss has displayed this season, especially on defense, and as a result most players on the team would tell you every piece of the puzzle deserves equal credit for this year’s success.

But where do you think that humility comes from? How do you think that togetherness was formed?

Sure, Freeze played a part, taking his experiences as a high school coach less than a decade ago and applying them to the highest form of amateur football in the world.

But those seniors have played an even bigger role in keeping this team grounded. After all, there was no precedent set for the success the Rebels have already attained this season, and the team’s most experienced players know more about heartbreak and anguish than they do about glory.

Many of Ole Miss’ most talented players came into the program as the culture was changing; the seniors, however, had to change as the culture changed, an experience as daunting as it sounds. But not only did the remaining seniors rise to that challenge, they thrived because of it.

So while it’s easy to credit Freeze and his sexy recruiting classes for the Rebels turnaround, it would be poor form to overlook the true heart and soul of this year’s team — the seniors.

When Ole Miss bids farewell to those seniors in its home finale on Saturday, it won’t just be saying goodbye to the last class from an era of disappointment, but rather the first class to lay the foundation for what is now one of the SEC’s emerging programs. This year’s senior class may never receive the full credit it deserves, but it will certainly never be forgotten.