Ole Miss’s floor during the Lane Kiffin era has been unprecedented.
If you use proper context of that first COVID season and note that his squad went 5-5 vs. Power Conference competition with a bowl victory against a top-15 squad, you’ll see what I’m referring to. That year was the first and only time that Ole Miss had a losing SEC record in 5 seasons of the Lane Kiffin era. Mind you, Ole Miss had a losing record in 13 of the first 20 seasons in the 21st century. Now, Ole Miss is trying for its 4th season of double-digit wins in the last 5 years, which has never happened.
One can acknowledge last year’s disappointment of not reaching the 12-team Playoff while also acknowledging that Kiffin is well on his way to accomplishing all sorts of historic feats in Oxford. One also has to acknowledge the all-important floor because for a team that ranks last in the SEC and No. 113 in FBS in percentage of returning production, some might assume that the positives are lacking.
Not true. There are positives all over the place with the 2025 version of Ole Miss.
There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.
For those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.
So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:
Today, we’ll continue with the best things about Ole Miss in 2025:
Best offensive player: Cayden Lee, WR
I’m such a Lee fan that I put him on my 2025 All-Bang The Drum Team, and I ranked him as the No. 4 returning receiver in the SEC. Why? When Tre Harris got hurt, Lee stepped into that WR1 role. In the last 7 games, he had 39 catches (with 0 drops) for 577 yards. Matthew Golden was the only SEC receiver who had more 20-yard catches than Lee (20), who operated primarily out of the slot. That’s going to be an obvious go-to target for new quarterback/classmate Austin Simmons. If that ends up being the SEC’s best connection, it shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Lee and fellow dynamic LSU slot receiver Aaron Anderson could both become what Luther Burden III was in 2023. The question for Lee is if he’ll get enough help from new transfer receivers De’Zhaun Stribling (Oklahoma State) and Harrison Wallace III (Penn State) on the outside. Lee can take advantage of plenty of those mismatches with his elite route-running and become one of the most reliable targets in the sport.
Best defensive player: Suntarine Perkins, LB
Perkins might feel like the Will Smith meme in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” where he’s looking around an empty room. When you lose the NFL defensive talent that Ole Miss did, one can understand that lonely feeling. But even with those 5 defensive players off to the NFL, Perkins can build on what was a breakout 2024 campaign. It’s easy to forget that he was tied for the team-lead in both tackles for loss (14) and sacks (10.5). Mind you, that was for an Ole Miss team that set a program records in both categories.
The question with Perkins will be whether he gets the same favorable matchups with Ole Miss replacing so much talent in the front 7. Perkins’ ability didn’t appear to be the byproduct of being lower on the scouting report, though. The former 5-star recruit can still win one-on-ones with his speed as a smaller (210 pounds) edge rusher. I’d expect Pete Golding to add even more to his plate to utilize his skill set with a portal-heavy group on defense. Perkins can once again be a game-wrecking menace who terrorizes SEC offenses.
Best freshman: Devin Harper, OG
It’s no secret that 2024 Ole Miss atypically lacked that imposing offensive line that we’ve seen throughout the Kiffin era. As a result, the ground game never really found its identity, and it proved costly in some of those nail-biter games. What does that mean? A guy like Harper could be in position to play quicker than you’d think as an interior OL. The Shreveport, La. native flipped from LSU to Ole Miss late in the recruiting process instead of sticking with Brian Kelly and his remarkable track record for developing offensive linemen. Could that have been because Harper saw a quicker path to playing time at Ole Miss? Perhaps.
He’s 6-5, 315 pounds with the ability to potentially play at a variety of spots. Those guys at offensive line-needy programs tend to find their way onto the field pretty quickly, even in the SEC. Harper already earned some high marks for his spring showing. A place on the 2-deep as part of the long-term solution up front feels imminent for Harper.
Best game: Week 5, LSU vs. Ole Miss
It was one of the best SEC games of the 2024 season. Well, I suppose an Ole Miss fan wouldn’t say that. If Garrett Nussmeier doesn’t thread the needle on 4th down, Ole Miss wins that game and is likely in the Playoff instead of finishing with 3 losses. But in 2025, Ole Miss will get a shot at revenge in Oxford. This rivalry has gone in favor of the home team in each of the last 5 seasons, AKA the entire Kiffin era. Could 2025 end that? Nussmeier is back for LSU, though it’s worth noting that he struggled throughout the Magnolia Bowl in 2024, albeit against a much different Ole Miss defense than the one we’ll see in 2025.
Whatever the case, this game gave us thrillers in each of the last 2 seasons. A third consecutive instant classic could have a massive say in the Playoff pursuit for both squads.
Best reason for improvement: Lane Kiffin is better without sky-high expectations
The biggest concern last year was that Ole Miss had its highest preseason ranking in the AP Poll since the Richard Nixon administration. Kiffin didn’t capitalize on that in the way that Ole Miss fans hoped with 3 losses by a total of 13 points. It didn’t matter that Ole Miss knocked off eventual-SEC Champion Georgia, or that it finished with the No. 2 scoring defense in FBS. Missing the Playoff — no matter how much Kiffin disagreed with the decision — was a brutal pill to swallow after everything was set up for Ole Miss with a loaded roster and an atypically favorable SEC schedule.
In 2021 and 2023, Ole Miss entered as a fringe top-25 team and Kiffin led both to a New Year’s 6 Bowl. In 2011, USC entered as a fringe top-25 team and it finished No. 6 … which was followed by a preseason No. 1 ranking in 2012 that ended with an unranked finish that served as the preamble to Kiffin getting left on the tarmac. Even go back to his time at Alabama or at FAU. When expectations of him have been low, he’s been at his best.
This Ole Miss team doesn’t figure to start in the top 10 or maybe not even in the top 15. Dare I say, that’d be a positive. Kiffin has the benefit of a first-time starting quarterback in Simmons, who could catch plenty of teams by surprise early in the schedule. If Ole Miss can avoid massive regression on defense with Golding — something that isn’t a guarantee — the schedule screams “November Playoff relevance.” It features 9 matchups vs. teams who lost at least 5 games, and just 1 matchup against a team who won 10 games, and it’s a Georgia squad that Ole Miss pummeled last season.
A post-hype season in Oxford is in play in 2025.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
