This is shaping up to be an interesting year for the Ole Miss Rebels. Matt Luke is firmly established as the head coach and he has one of the most powerful offenses in the country at his disposal. With that said, there are still some major questions, largely centered around whether they can run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense. Here are some of the best and worst-case scenarios for the Rebels in 2018.

Dream scenarios

1. Jordan Ta’amu develops into an All-SEC QB: The offense became far more efficient when Ta’amu took the reins after Shea Patterson went, and he closed the year really well. In the 5 games he started, he completed 66 percent of his passes for 1,604 yards with 11 TDs and 4 INTs, averaging a whopping 9.9 yards per attempt.

He’s now spent a full offseason as the undisputed leader of the offense, further improving his grasp of the Phil Longo’s scheme and timing with receivers, so even more will be expected of Ta’amu this fall. For the Rebels to exceed expectations, Ta’amu must continue improving as a leader and a passer, and become an All-SEC caliber QB.

2. Scottie Phillips Becomes Wilkins 2.0: Another key to the Rebels’ success late last year was the emergence of Jordan Wilkins providing a viable rushing threat to balance the offense, and he became just the fifth 1,000-yard rusher in school history. With Wilkins off to the NFL, someone needs to step up to replace him, and incoming JUCO transfer Scottie Phillips could be that guy.

If Phillips can even come close to matching the play of Wilkins down the stretch — 543 yards, 7.6 YPC and 5 TDs in final 5 games – the Rebels will have the kind of balance that will force defenses to play them honestly. This, in turn, will give guys like AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and DaMarkus Lodge more one-on-one opportunities downfield to further stretch the field.

3. Coatney and Jones clog the middle: Being able to stop the run is an absolute necessity to succeed in the SEC. Unfortunately for the Rebs, that also is a major question mark heading into the season. A key to solving this riddle (besides the next point on this list) will be the play of the interior defensive linemen, Josiah Coatney and Benito Jones.

Opponents will test Ole Miss up the middle, especially early in the season to exploit what is considered to be a weakness. Both Coatney and Jones are legitimate NFL prospects, and they’ll have ample opportunity to boost their resumes this fall. In an ideal world, both vets play up to or beyond their potential and become rocks in the middle of the line, giving aid to the linebacker corps and forcing teams outside.

4. Linebackers emerge: Besides the need for their defensive line to play well, another key to successfully stopping the run will be for someone – anyone, really – to emerge at linebacker, a unit that is widely considered the worst in the SEC. The unit was subpar last year, and now they’re losing both starters from that squad, making this undisputedly the biggest cause for concern for the once-vaunted Landshark defense.

The dream scenario is that senior Detric Bing-Dukes finally becomes the dominant force against the run that made him a 4-star prospect. Josh Clarke becomes a sideline-to-sideline playmaker who protects the perimeter. Willie Hibbler, Zikerrion Baker, Mohamed Sanogo and Donta Evans will provide quality depth who can provide relief with no drop in production.

5. Matt Luke keeps bowl-banned Rebs motivated: He did a phenomenal job last year keeping the team afloat amidst all of the craziness off-the-field. Everything from the ongoing 6-year NCAA colonoscopy to Hugh Freeze resigning just weeks before the season certainly made keeping the team focused formidable. Oh, and there was the fact that there would be no postseason for the Rebs, making the season, in essence, futile. But Luke somehow managed to keep the team hungry and passionate, playing for themselves if no one else.

In a perfect world, Luke repeats that, despite the fact that yet again there will be no postseason play. Motivated by pride and love for one another, they go undefeated and force the NCAA to place an asterisk on the eventual National Champion. Realistically, if the can win all their nonconference games, beat LSU, Arkansas, Vandy and Mississippi State for a solid 8-win season, it should be considered a success.

Disaster scenarios

1. Injuries pile up: This almost goes without saying, and it’s true for every team in the country. With that said, thanks to the NCAA investigation, the Rebels have had a couple of really rough recruiting classes that are beginning to take effect. They have some impressive frontline starters, but quality depth is serious concern.

Simply put, the Rebs can’t afford the injuries to pile up. Every team gets the injury bug, though some get it far worse than others. If the Rebs have some bad luck in this regard, the impact could be devastating.

2. No one steps up at RB: If Phillips isn’t capable of replacing Wilkins’ production, Ole Miss will pray that either Eric Swinney or Isaiah Woullard can. If they don’t work out, in addition to Phillips, the Rebs won’t have a rushing attack to balance the explosive aerial assault.

This will allow defenses to drop 5, 6, 7 or even 8 guys into coverage. This will clog passing lanes and lead to turnovers and put their already shaky defense into less than advantageous field positions. This will, in turn, will put the Rebs in a hole, from which the only way out will be to continue passing into heavy coverages. And so on, and so forth.

3. No one steps up at LB: The disaster scenario is that the linebacking corps is as bad as everyone thinks it is, and no one steps up. Bing-Dukes plays slow and gets poor run fits. Clarke doesn’t have the strength at the point of attack and gets man-handled. Depth fails to materialize and the younger players don’t develop into SEC-quality players.

This would put even more pressure on the defensive line and the secondary, forcing both to try and overcompensate, hindering the flexibility of the defense as a whole.

4. Can’t stop the run: In a worst-case scenario, the Rebels are weak in the middle of their defensive line and the linebacking unit becomes a revolving door of matadors allowing opponents to gash them up the middle and dominate the clock, keeping the powerful offense neutered on the sidelines.

Remember Alabama (365 rushing yards), Auburn (326 rushing yards) and LSU (393 rushing yards) last year? Yeah, that continues this year.

5. Matt Luke fails to keep team motivated: The final disaster scenario is that Luke simply can’t keep the team jacked up to play when they know there is no reward at the end of the road. This will be especially hard if they suffer some early losses to Texas Tech, Alabama and LSU.

The more losses that pile up, the harder it will be to keep guys focused on the remaining games and not think about the upcoming offseason. It’ll also be hard for the numerous NFL prospects on this squad to not start changing their priorities and begin focusing on the looming Draft season.