Lane Kiffin identifies the Ole Miss position with the ‘best depth’
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Lane Kiffin has had good success at Ole Miss through his first 5 seasons, going 44-18 overall and 25-16 in the SEC.
Those numbers include 3 double-digit-win seasons, including the past 2 years, when the Rebels went 11-2 in 2023 and 10-3 last year. But all-world quarterback Jaxson Dart is gone to the NFL, and Kiffin enters the 2025 season still looking for that elusive first College Football Playoff berth in Oxford.
For that reason alone, good hasn’t quite been good enough for Kiffin at Ole Miss. With a new starting quarterback in Austin Simmons ready to roll this fall in Oxford, Kiffin will be keeping a close eye on the guy who’s slated to replace Dart. And with Simmons seemingly entrenched as the starter, Kiffin is excited about his new QB and just as excited about the guys Simmons will be throwing to.
Kiffin is never shy about speaking his mind, and after Day 1 of fall camp on Tuesday, he told reporters that the wide receiver position stands out on his stacked roster as having the best depth of any position.
“Our best depth on our roster would be our outside receiver position or our receivers in general,” said Lane Kiffin.
Among those receivers is a prized 2025 recruit from right down the road, with 6-foot-3, 190-pound Caleb Cunningham joining the Rebels from Ackerman, Miss. One of the top players out of the state of Mississippi and 1 of the top wide receivers in the country in the Class of 2025, Cunningham chose Ole Miss over SEC rival Alabama, and he was also considering LSU and Tennessee.
He could give an already talent-rich position a huge boost this fall, and he’s just 1 reason why Kiffin is excited about the slew of receivers that Simmons will have at his disposal as he takes over for Dart.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
