If you needed another reminder of the potential for a great season in Oxford, EA Sports delivered it this week.
When the first wave of College Football 27 ratings dropped, Kewan Lacy wasn’t just near the top of the running back list. He was the list.
A 96 overall. Highest‑rated running back in the game. The kind of number that makes you stop scrolling for a second.
It also explains a lot. It explains why Lane Kiffin tried to bring Lacy with him to LSU. It explains why every preseason preview keeps circling back to Ole Miss’ backfield. And it explains why the Rebels are being talked about like a team with real championship potential.
When your running back is a 96 and your quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, checks in at 93, you’re playing in a different tier than most of the sport.
That’s the part that jumps out. Ole Miss doesn’t just have stars. It has two of the highest‑rated players at the two positions that matter most in modern football.
Chambliss sits behind only Dante Moore and Julian Sayin in the quarterback ratings. Lacy shares the top spot at halfback with Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy. Put those two together and you get a backfield that can go toe‑to‑toe with anyone in the country, at least on paper.
The team rating reflects that. Ole Miss landed at 88 overall, tied with Miami and LSU and slotted eighth nationally. Only Texas graded higher among SEC teams.
For a program that just made a semifinal run and returns its offensive engine, that tracks.
And as if the video‑game validation wasn’t enough, Lacy added another real‑world stamp of approval.
He signed a new NIL partnership with Q‑Collar, a company that works with some of the biggest names in football. Sauce Gardner. Dalton Kincaid. Byron Murphy. Now Kewan Lacy joins that group.
NEW: Ole Miss RB Kewan Lacy has signed an NIL deal with Q-Collar🦈
Lacy has a $1 million On3 NIL Valuation.
Read: https://t.co/GyfqrxxOTD pic.twitter.com/YK3sBcUMhv
— On3 NIL (@On3NIL) June 24, 2026
It’s a deal that fits where he is in his career. He ran for 1,567 yards and an SEC‑best 24 touchdowns last season. He helped carry Ole Miss to the playoff. He has a seven‑figure NIL valuation. He’s on the cover of the game. And now he’s tied to a national brand that wants him front and center.
This is what it looks like when a player becomes one of the faces of the sport.
Lacy should be on every Heisman watchlist this summer, right next to Chambliss.
One is the most productive running back in the SEC. The other is one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the country. Together, they give Ole Miss something rare: a duo that can win games in multiple ways and force defenses to pick their poison.
EA Sports sees it. NIL companies see it.
And if the season plays out anything like last year, the rest of the country will see it too.
