Rece Davis explains why he views Ole Miss ‘a contender’
By Jacob Moss
Published:
With the 2026 college football regular season officially past the halfway mark, the true contenders are beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the pack as the first College Football Playoff rankings loom on the horizon.
Squads like Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame, Texas, and Ohio State have received a lion’s share of the coverage so far this year, but the No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels have also quietly remained near the top of the food chain heading into the back half of the season with wins over LSU, Missouri, and Louisville already under their belt.
While the Rebels might have faded from the spotlight for many following their upset loss to Florida earlier in the year, ESPN’s Rece Davis has remained extremely high on the program. The longtime analyst and commentator joined the Pat McAfee show on Wednesday and explained why he still views Pete Golding‘s squad as a legitimate threat to win it all come playoff time.
“I think that a lot of us were sort of shaken by the Florida performance,” Davis said. “… I thought that it was a really good response for them against Missouri… I think that you still look at Ole Miss as a contender, and based on the way that things are unfolding in the SEC, I think that you can make a pretty good argument that they are probably the second-best team in the SEC behind Georgia at the moment.”
There’s no denying that, with the way things have gone so far not just in the SEC but around college football, the Rebels are still firmly in the hunt for both a conference and national championship. They have their weaknesses like everybody else, but Trinidad Chambliss will always give them a chance to win no matter who the opponent is.
Chambliss and the rest of the Rebels will have another chance to prove themselves this Saturday when they head to Austin to take on a Texas Longhorns squad in desperate need of a win.
