Ole Miss football continues to prepare for the upcoming season and the expectations continue to become clearer with each preseason top 25.
The Associated Press will release its preseason poll on Monday, officially setting the pecking order for the upcoming season. Other publications, though, are still releasing their preseason rankings. Sports Illustrated released its preseason top 25 on Thursday and it continued the trend we’ve seen in other rankings.
Ole Miss is a top 10 team.
The Rebels come in at No. 9 in the SI College Football Top 25 Preseason Rankings. That’s the highest ranking for them of the polls that have been released. The US LBM Coaches Poll ranked Ole Miss No. 10, Athlon Sports at No. 13 and CBS Sports at No. 12.
Notre Dame received SI’s No. 1 ranking and Georgia was the highest-ranked SEC team at No. 3. The Rebels sit in the next tier of SEC teams with Texas and LSU in the two spots above it.
SI offered a bold prediction for each team in its rankings. The one for Ole Miss, though, isn’t too bold considering all of the factors.
“Bold prediction: The Rebels’ offense scores more points without Kiffin and Weis.
“The Rebels didn’t take a step back without Kiffin in last season’s CFP, and they’re not about to now. Coach Pete Golding smartly brought in a familiar face in John David Baker, who once served as a co-offensive coordinator under Kiffin in Oxford, to call the plays in 2026. If you listen to Ole Miss stars Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy speak about Baker, the common theme is familiarity and similarity. This Rebels offense won’t look too different. And with a year of his experience under his belt as a starter, Chambliss may take another step forward.”
The last line is why this isn’t a very bold prediction. Chambliss has had a full offseason of work as the starting quarterback. But Kewan Lacy, Deuce Alexander, Caleb Odom, Luke Hasz, Patrick Kutas, Brycen Sanders and Delano Townsend have spent the past offseason as starters at their positions.
That’s a lot of high-level talent that’s spent the last eight months working out and getting better. So, it wouldn’t be that crazy to see this year’s offense do better than last year’s.
Here’s the full top 25 ranking from SI:
Sports Illustrated’s College Football Top 25 Preseason Rankings
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Indiana
- Ohio State
- Miami
- Texas
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- USC
- Texas A&M
- Texas Tech
- BYU
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- Michigan
- SMU
- Penn State
- Washington
- Missouri
- Florida
- Tennessee
- Boise State
- Utah
- Iowa
