Can 2024 Ole Miss Rebels ‘Reinvent’ How People View College Football?

The Ole Miss Rebels entered 2024 with the kind of hype Oxford hasn’t seen since the early 1960s, and the college football world has taken notice.

The Rebels have a third-year starting quarterback in Jaxson Dart who could be primed for a Heisman-type year, and Tre Harris out wide who could be a first round pick in next year’s NFL draft. These are just two key pieces, not to mention Walter Nolen, Juice Wells, Jared Ivey and Caden Prieskorn, and what do all of these guys have in common? They are all transfer portal additions.

It’s no secret that the self-proclaimed “Portal King,” Lane Kiffin, has found an upper hand in recruiting by poaching some of the best players in the country out of the portal and bringing them to Oxford to play major roles for the 2024 season. Still, one analyst thinks Ole Miss has the potential to change the thinking around how you construct a roster in college football.

On an installment of “The Hard Count,” JD PicKell of On3 talked about the teams with big potential in this upcoming 2024 season, and Ole Miss was one of these teams.

Pickell talks about how Ole Miss could change the optics surrounding recruiting in major college football.

“If Ole Miss goes on a deep run in the playoff, let’s say Ole Miss plays for a national title…that’s going to reinvent how we look at the portal,” PicKell said. “Right now, there is this thought you cannot portal your way to big-time success in the college football world.

“If Ole Miss portals their way to an SEC Championship, that would change the game. It’s always crazy until someone does it.”

PicKell has a great point; we haven’t seen a team that leans on the portal like the Rebels take that next step and truly compete for a conference title, much less a national title.

Kiffin has added 65 transfer portal players over the last three years, and while high school recruiting has consistently been ranked in the mid-20s, the Rebels’ portal class has elevated the program’s ceiling heading into 2024.

Everyone uses the portal to some extent, but the Rebels have truly grabbed the bull by the horns in this new Wild West era of college football. Can this type of strategy pay off, and will this Ole Miss program take that next step and establish themselves as the new kids on the block in this new 12-team playoff era?