In an ideal world, Quinshon Judkins would’ve ended his college career as an Ole Miss legend.

He would’ve left Oxford as the program’s all-time leading rusher having led the first Playoff push. Judkins would’ve left Ole Miss not only as one of the best running backs in school history but also as one of the great running backs in SEC history.

But that world isn’t reality; the NIL world is. In that world, Judkins is off to Ohio State, where he’ll be the focal point of a new-look Buckeyes’ offense in 2024.

Last week, I wrote that a potential Judkins’ departure would certainly put a damper on all the Ole Miss good vibes this offseason. I still believe Judkins leaving isn’t a positive. “System backs” don’t waltz into the SEC and become the first running back since Herschel Walker to rip off consecutive seasons with 15 rushing touchdowns. With 2,725 rushing yards in 2 seasons, he leaves ranked 3rd in Ole Miss history — and was just 2 solid games from supplanting Deuce McAllister (3,060) at the top. He’s 2nd in career rushing TDs (31), trailing only McAllister (37). He’s Ole Miss’ single-season record-holder in both categories.

Judkins is special. Ole Miss fans know that as well as anybody.

All of that can be true while still believing something else — there should still be a whole lot of excitement about Lane Kiffin’s program in 2024. Like, especially knowing that Kiffin isn’t going to leave for Alabama.

In my way-too-early top 10, I ranked Ole Miss at No. 5. Mind you, that was after the Judkins-to-Ohio State announcement and before we found out that LSU transfer Logan Diggs committed to Ole Miss (more on that in a bit).

That optimism was rooted in a few things based on the ground game correlation to team success 7-year sample size of Kiffin’s restart as a head coach (FAU and Ole Miss). In that stretch, Kiffin’s top 2 running backs that he coached were Judkins and Devin Singletary. Let’s start with the Singletary part of this.

When Singletary went off to the NFL, there was concern that FAU would struggle to replace its all-time leading rusher. The guy that they called “Motor” carried the rock a whopping 261 times in 12 games in 2018. FAU also regressed significantly during Singletary’s last college season, and it was held to just 5 wins. So naturally, Singletary leaving for the NFL after a historic career meant that FAU would … match its best win total in program history? Yep.

It didn’t matter that 2019 FAU never really found anyone quite like Singletary, or that the ground game regressed to No. 62 in FBS a year removed from finishing No. 13. Kiffin found a way. How? He had a veteran starting QB with a bevy of experienced pass-catching options, and the FAU defense improved by 9 points per game.

Dare I say, 2024 Ole Miss can follow a similar blueprint.

Well, let me back up. Ole Miss isn’t coming off a 5-win season like FAU was in its last season with Singletary. It’s an 11-win team that just earned a No. 9 finish in the AP Top 25, which was Kiffin’s best as a head coach. Kiffin did that even though Ole Miss had its worst rushing attack during his 4 seasons in Oxford. Like, with Year 2 Judkins.

In 2024, Kiffin could show that losing his best player is by no means a limit on his team’s ceiling. In a strange way, maybe it could unlock the best version of Ole Miss.

In the first half of 2023, it felt like Judkins was being forced carries when he wasn’t at 100% and the running lanes simply weren’t there. We eventually saw a healthier version of Judkins, who benefited from improved blocking with the return of Memphis tight end transfer Caden Prieskorn.

Speaking of Prieskorn, he’s one of the reasons this Ole Miss offense has major upside. No returning SEC tight end had more receiving yards than Prieskorn, who missed the first 3 weeks and then was so good that Michael Trigg hit the portal just weeks after he was the hero against Tulane.

Prieskorn, Tre Harris and South Carolina transfer Juice Wells will give Ole Miss the best group of pass-catchers in the SEC. Those 3 guys weren’t on the roster when Judkins broke out in 2022.

Jaxson Dart was there in 2022, but he was a first-year starter who had too many instances in which he reminded us of that. In 2023? He was a better version of himself. Dart cut the interceptions in half, he became a more decisive runner near the goal line and he showed that he could carry an offense, even against quality competition. There aren’t 10 returning quarterbacks in America who are better than Dart, especially with the continuity that he’ll have in Year 3 with Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr.

Dart might not get the preseason accolades that Carson Beck, Jalen Milroe and Quinn Ewers (if he’s back) do, and if you factor in the Nico Iamaleava hype train, the Ole Miss starter might not be 1 of the 4 most-talked-about quarterbacks returning in the conference.

Advantage, Ole Miss.

There’s also another advantage. After having its best scoring defense since 2015 and answering the questions about Pete Golding away from the Alabama defense, all Kiffin did was add these proven SEC defensive starters:

  • Florida DE Princely Umanmielen
  • Tennessee LB Tyler Baron
  • Arkansas LB Chris Paul Jr.
  • Texas A&M DL Walter Nolen
  • Mississippi State CB Decamerion Richardson

Oh, and Ole Miss got Jared Ivey and JJ Pegues back on the defensive line. That’s how you build an SEC-ready defense. It’s how you bridge the gap between yourself and teams like … oh, I don’t know … Georgia. As in, the team that beat Ole Miss like a drum and reminded us that it wasn’t a Tier 1 team. Yet.

In 2024, that’s on the table. The pieces are in place.

You know what else is? The schedule.

Even in this new era of the SEC with seemingly a more difficult path to get to Atlanta, Ole Miss might have the most favorable road. The 2024 schedule only features 1 team (Georgia) that played in a New Year’s 6 bowl. Only 3 Power 5 teams on that 2024 schedule won 8 games in 2023. Compare that to Alabama (5), LSU (5), Georgia (5) or … Florida (6).

Better yet, Ole Miss has 1 road game against a team that had a winning record in 2023, and it’s an LSU team that Kiffin and Co. beat with Jayden Daniels. Alabama and Georgia each have 4 such games.

And if I really wanted to hammer home that point, I’d mention that Ole Miss only faces 2 teams that had a top-40 run defense, though it’s hard to say that truly matters when we just watched Kiffin’s offense run for 146 yards against the top run defense in America in the Peach Bowl.

The pieces are in place. And in typical Kiffin fashion, so is Judkins’ replacement, thanks to the transfer portal.

For a minute, it looked like former SMU transfer Ulysses Bentley IV was set to take on a feature-back role after 2 years of being the change-of-pace back behind Judkins. Bentley had moments early in 2023 where he was the more effective back than Judkins, who played through injuries and a work-in-progress offensive line. When Bentley announced his return for his final year of eligibility — that came after the Judkins news — it was a nice boost to an already loaded offense.

But after the news of Diggs’ transfer, it seems more likely that Kiffin would keep Bentley in that complementary role. Diggs was one of the SEC’s top backs in the first part of 2022 following his transfer to LSU from Notre Dame. After he missed the opener against Florida State, Diggs averaged 97.5 rushing yards in his first 6 games of action. Injuries limited him in the latter half of the season, and his role was diminished.

Perhaps Kiffin will try to preserve the oft-injured back and get closer to a 50-50 split with Diggs and Bentley. Remember, this is the same coach who landed coveted transfers Bentley and Zach Evans, then recognized the greatness of Judkins even as a 3-star true freshman. Maybe that means redshirt freshman Kedrick Reescano is going to emerge as the bell-cow back.

For all I know, Kiffin will line up Pegues at wild cat for 20 snaps a game. There’s no cheering in the press box, but if there’s ever a reason to chuck that rule, that’s it.

All I know is that Kiffin will find a way to have a successful offense. In 7 years as a head coach, Kiffin’s offenses averaged a minimum of 31 points. Only 1 ranked outside of the top 30 in scoring, and it was Year 2 at FAU back in 2018.

Life will go on in a post-Judkins world. Ole Miss’ world can still be ideal in 2024.