The Ole Miss Rebels are the only team in the SEC poised to return all five of their starting offensive linemen from 2014 when the new season arrives this fall.

So why doesn’t the line feel like one of the strengths of a Rebels team hoping to build from last year’s success?

Perhaps it’s because other than star left tackle Laremy Tunsil, the Ole Miss offensive line just wasn’t very good a season ago.

The Rebels ranked 10th in the SEC running the football, and they finished in the bottom three in the conference in sacks allowed as well as tackles for loss allowed. Worse yet, they ranked 11th in the conference in scoring at 28 points per game, again due in large part to lackluster play up front and a unbalanced offense with no true rushing threat.

Ole Miss amassed nine wins and a New Year’s Six bowl berth on the backs of its defense, which allowed fewer points per game than any other unit in the nation. That defense has since lost two All-American defensive backs and both its starting linebackers, adding more emphasis to an offense that just lost three-year starting quarterback Bo Wallace and a pair of tailback transfers.

If Ole Miss is to cash in on one of its most talented rosters in recent history, headlined by its historic 2013 recruiting class, it must play better along the offensive line. Last year’s weakness must become this year’s strength if the Rebels are to grow and develop into one of the country’s true playoff contenders.

What makes that so difficult, of course, is the lack of turnover along the line. The group was porous a year ago, and there’ve hardly been any personnel changes since then.

So how can Ole Miss improve?

First things first, it must make sure by all means that Tunsil is healthy to start Week 1 in September. Tunsil, a former five-star signee and top offensive line prospect from the 2013 recruiting class, has a chance to earn All-America honors this fall and a chance to be selected near the top of the 2016 NFL Draft the following spring. He’s a superstar, and when he’s on the field protecting the blindside Ole Miss has one less area to worry about.

Tunsil is sitting out the spring after suffering a broken leg in the Rebels’ Peach Bowl loss to TCU on New Year’s Eve, and there’s no rush to get him onto the field before the regular season arrives. If he rests and rehabs the injury properly, he should be able to return to form.

So let’s say Tunsil comes back healthy and is as dominant as ever at the left tackle spot. How does Ole Miss handle its other four offensive line spots, and where can the improvement come from?

Fahn Cooper stands to maintain his starting right tackle job opposite Tunsil, and this shouldn’t be an area of major concern either. Cooper is a former junior college transfer and a rising senior. He has experience and veteran savvy, and while he certainly left room for improvement with his play last season, he stands to grow more from last year’s experience than any other player on the line.

Cooper had two years of junior college experience before arriving at Ole Miss, and last season allowed him to acclimate himself with SEC speed while using the tools he developed at the JUCO level. This season is his last chance to put it all together, and it’s fair to expect that he will, even if he’s not a league-wide star like Tunsil.

The interior of the line is of much greater concern. Ole Miss’ struggles running the football were amplified when attempting to run between the tackles, as the Rebs’ three interior linemen simply failed to provide the consistent push they needed to in the trenches.

Four-star guard prospect and 2015 early enrollee Javon Patterson is participating in spring practice, and there’s a strong likelihood he earns a starting job this fall the way Tunsil did as a freshman in 2013. Patterson is the No. 3 guard prospect in the nation and the No. 1 prospect at any position from the state of Mississippi in 2015.

At 6-foot-3 and 317 pounds, Patterson is already big enough and strong enough to compete in the SEC. He’s physical at the point of attack and is a better pass protector than most guards, which makes him an ideal fit for a line that struggled to pass protect and opening running lanes inside.

Patterson, returning left guard Justin Bell and returning right guard Rod Taylor will all be in competition for the two starting guard jobs, so even if Patterson isn’t awarded a starting spot fans can trust it is because Bell and Taylor showed drastic improvement from last season during spring practice and training camp this fall.

Returning center Ben Still seems likely to remain the starter at the position with Robert Conyers serving as his backup. Neither is regarded as one of the better centers in the SEC, but considering three of the conference’s best at the position just departed for the NFL, the Rebels will at least have experience at the center spot that other teams lack.

The biggest difference between this year’s line and last is depth. Tunsil and Cooper are a solid tandem of tackles, and now former quarterback and tight end Jeremy Liggins (all 300 pounds of him) will serve as a backup offensive tackle who head coach Hugh Freeze is on record as saying could play the position in the NFL some day. Patterson adds depth at guard, and Conyers does the same at center. There’s depth, margin for error, an opportunity to remove struggling players from a game when the result is still up in the air.

Don’t expect Freeze to suddenly use a revolving-door policy regarding his offensive line substitutions, but that depth will be to the Rebels’ benefit, as will the experience of returning five offensive linemen as will boasting the best left tackle in college football as the anchor of the line.

So not much has changed for the Rebels’ front five, and yet a lot has changed. We’ll see if those changes pay dividends this fall.