As the Ole Miss Rebels literally kickoff the football season in Oxford this week, here are are few things to know about this year's team.
• This game will kick off the 130th season of football at Ole Miss.
• The Rebels are 95-29-5 (.756) in season openers and have taken 22 of the last 27 on the field.
• Lane Kiffin begins his fifth season at Ole Miss and 13th overall as a head coach ... Kiffin is 8-4 in season openers.
• Ole Miss is coming off its first 11-win season in program history, capped by a Peach Bowl victory over Penn State.
• Ole Miss opens 2024 ranked No. 6 in both the AP and Coaches preseason polls, the highest preseason slot for the Rebels since 1970 (No. 5) and their first top-10 preseason debut since 2009 (No. 8).
• Ole Miss has ranked within the top-10 in each of the last four seasons, the first such streak since 1961-64.
• Ole Miss is 65-17 (.793) versus non-conference opponents dating back to a 38-0 win over Tulane on Nov. 12, 1994 ... Under head coach Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss is 14-2 against non-conference opponents.
• Ole Miss is 117-41-6 (.732) all-time versus non-conference opponents during September.
• The Rebels are 299-115-8 (.717) all-time at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium before vacated wins (277-112-8 after).
• Ole Miss has gone 21-2 at home since the beginning of the 2021 season ... The Rebels rank third among all SEC teams in total wins in that span with 29.
• Ole Miss leads the FBS in total offense since 2020 at 498.2 yards per game.
• QB Jaxson Dart enters year three as Ole Miss’ starting quarterback.
• Of its 59 newcomers, Ole Miss welcomes in 31 new transfers as part of its No. 1 ranked transfer class.
• DT JJ Pegues was awarded the Chucky Mullins Courage Award and will wear the No. 38 jersey at home this season ... Pegues will continue to wear his No. 89 on the road.
OLE MISS HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN
Lane Kiffin is in his fifth season at Ole Miss and has led the Rebels to four consecutive bowl berths, including two New Year’s Six appearances, under his guidance since 2020.
In 11 years at the NCAA level, Kiffin has posted an all-time record of 95-49, including a 34-15 mark at Ole Miss. Kiffin led the 2023 Rebels to the best season in Ole Miss history in terms of wins, notching an 11-2 overall record capped by a 38-25 Peach Bowl victory over Penn State.
The Rebels finished No. 9 in both final versions of the AP and Coaches polls, the highest finish overall since 2015 (No. 9 Coaches) and their highest in the final AP poll since 1969 (No. 8).
In 2022, Kiffin led the Rebels to the Texas Bowl, thanks to another dynamite offense that ranked No. 3 nationally in rushing offense (256.6) and No. 8 in total offense (496.4) in 2022. Kiffin guided the Rebels to a 10-3 record in 2021, the first 10-win regular season in school history. The Rebels finished the season ranked No. 11 in both the AP and AFCA Coaches Poll, its highest final ranking since 2016.
Ole Miss ranked top-20 in the FBS in nine different offensive categories in his first season in 2020.
In December 2016, Kiffin took over an FAU program that had won a total of nine combined games over the previous three seasons. Kiffin proceeded to take the Owls to new heights over the last three years, including two conference titles and two 10-win seasons. In his head coaching stops at USC, Tennessee and FAU, Kiffin has shown a propensity in helping turn programs around. Kiffin graduated from Fresno State in 1998 after playing quarterback for three seasons (1994-96) for the Bulldogs. He began his coaching career as a student assistant at Fresno State under Pat Hill in 1997 and 1998.
FURMAN HEAD COACH CLAY HENDRIX
Furman head coach Clay Hendrix is in his eighth season with the Paladins and he begins the 2024 season. He holds a 51-29 overall career record, all of which has been at Furman.
Hendrix has returned Paladin football to its long respected level of national prominence and securely fixed his winning stamp on a program he has served over a span of four decades. Under Hendrix’s guidance, Furman has won 10 games in back-to-back seasons, including a SoCon title in 2023. Furman’s success under Hendrix, honored in 2023 as SoCon and AFCA Region II Coach of the Year, has been the product of many factors, including solid recruiting and player development/retention.
In 2023, five Paladins earned All-America honors and 19 players landed All-SoCon laurels, led by league offensive player of the year, quarterback Tyler Huff, and Jacobs Blocking Award recipient, offensive guard Jacob Johanning.
Furman’s results the last two seasons have further extended Hendrix’s winning legacy, evidenced in the fact that in now 42 years of collegiate football, spanning his years as a player, assistant coach, and head coach, he has been part of 35 winning teams that have combined to go 333-180-3 (.648).
PALADINS SCOUTING REPORT
Furman begins the season ranked ninth in the AFCA FCS Preseason Poll and No. 12 in the Stats Perform FCS Poll as the Paladins make their way to Oxford.
Furman returns seven starters off last year’s 10-3, SoCon championship team that advanced to the playoff quarterfinals. The Paladins have earned rankings in each of the last 21 Stats Perform FCS Polls.
Furman finished last season ranked sixth and seventh in the AFCA and Stats Perform FCS final polls, the Paladins’ highest finish since 2005.
The Paladins lost their starting quarterback, top running back, and the top four offensive linemen in snaps from last year’s offense. They do return their top three pass-catchers and three linemen who started at least four games in 2023. After allowing 18.2 points per game (No. 11 in the FCS), Furman returns four of its top 15 tacklers and four of its 15 leaders in snaps.
Furman bandit Luke Clark earned preseason All-America accolades after finishing 2023 with 53 tackles, including seven for-loss, and a team leading six sacks.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
• Ole Miss is 65-17 (.793) versus non-conference opponents dating back to a 38-0 win over Tulane on Nov. 12, 1994.
• Under head coach Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss is 14-2 against non-conference opponents.
• The Rebels have only lost one home non-conference game since 2012 (Sept. 23, 2019 vs. #23 Cal, 28-20).
• Ole Miss has only lost three total non-conference road games since 2012.
OLE MISS IN SEPTEMBER
• Ole Miss is 165-93-7 (.636) all-time during the month of September after vacated wins.
• Ole Miss is 106-35-3 (.747) in September home games (including contests played in Memphis and Jackson).
• The Rebels are 81-22-2 (.781) in September games played in Oxford after vacated wins.
• Ole Miss is 117-41-6 (.732) all-time versus non-conference opponents during September.
SEASON OPENERS
The Rebels are 95-29-5 (.756) in season openers and have taken 22 of the last 27 on the field. This marks the second year in a row Ole Miss has opened with a member of the SoCon after beating Mercer, 73-7, in 2023.
SEASON OPENERS
The Rebels are 95-29-5 (.756) in season openers and have taken 22 of the last 27 on the field. This marks the second year in a row Ole Miss has opened with a member of the SoCon after beating Mercer, 73-7, in 2023.
HOME SWEET HOME
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium has been a safe haven for the Rebels historically, owning a 299-115-8 (.717) record all-time in Oxford before vacated wins (277-112-8), and that’s been no different in the Kiffin era. Ole Miss is 21-2 in its last 23 home games, and since the beginning of Kiffin’s tenure in 2020, the Rebels have gone 21-5 overall at Vaught-Hemingway -- which includes a 14-game home winning streak that spanned Nov. 14, 2020 to Oct. 15, 2022. That streak was among the longest home winning streaks nationally when it was snapped by No. 9 Alabama in 2022. It was also the longest winning streak in Oxford since winning 21 straight games from Nov. 1, 1952 to Nov. 7, 1959. Including a tie to LSU in 1960, the Rebels went unbeaten for 34 games over the course of 12 years (1952-64). Under Kiffin, the Rebels have recorded the first two seven-win homes seasons in program history in 2021 and 2023.
REBS IN THE POLLS
• Ole Miss opens 2024 at No. 6 in both the Associated Press and Coaches preseason polls.
• No. 6 is the highest preseason ranking for Ole Miss since 1970, when the Rebels started off at No. 5.
• This marks the first preseason top-10 appearance for the Rebels since 2009, when Ole Miss opened at No. 8.
• Dating back to 2021, Ole Miss has been ranked in the top 25 in 46 of the last 50 poll releases ... That includes a streak of 29 across 2021 and 2022, the longest streak since being ranked for 41 straight weeks from 2014-16.
• The SEC boasts nine teams in the top 25.
HIGH-FLYING OFFENSE
In the Kiffin era, the Rebel offense ranks as the most prolific in the nation, leading the FBS in yards per game since the beginning of the 2020 season at 498.2 yards per game. In terms of total yards, Ole Miss ranks fourth in the FBS at 24,413 yards within the Kiffin era. In that same four-year stretch, Ole Miss ranks sixth among all FBS schools in rushing yards per game at 215.5, as well as 15th in passing yards per game at 282.7. That puts the Rebels as one of two FBS teams to rank top-15 in both rushing yards per game and passing yards per game since 2020 alongside North Carolina, as well as one of two SEC schools in the top-15 in both total rushing and passing yards alongside Georgia.
HISTORIC SEASON
The 2023 Rebels did something no other team in the storied history of Ole Miss Football had ever accomplished: win 11 games in a single season. Ole Miss recorded only its ninth 10-win season in program history (the second of the Lane Kiffin era) following an Egg Bowl win in Starkville on Nov. 23, but the Rebels followed that up with its historic 11th victory in the Peach Bowl over Penn State. Ole Miss was rewarded with a top-10 finish in the national polls, ranking ninth in both final versions of the AP and Coaches polls. This marked only the 12th such top-10 national finish for the Rebels, their highest overall since 2015 (No. 9 Coaches), and their highest in the AP poll since 1969 (No. 8). Another top-10 finish in 2024 would mark the first consecutive seasons doing so since a five-year stretch from 1959-63.
NEW FACES
Roster turnover is the name of the game in modern college athletics, which means Ole Miss is no stranger to new faces. This season, out of 127 total student-athletes on the roster, 59 (46.4%) are brand-new to the Rebel squad. Of those, 31 (24.4%) are new transfers this past spring and summer, and 28 (22%) are freshmen signees. Combined with transfers from previous seasons, a total of 56 Rebels (44.1%) have transferred to Ole Miss on the current 2024 roster. That number also includes running back Henry Parrish Jr., who began his career at Ole Miss from 2020-21 before spending two seasons at Miami prior to his return to Oxford this fall.
PORTAL COMBAT
For the third straight year, Ole Miss ended up within the top-six of the 247Sports transfer rankings, leading the nation with the top-ranked transfer class of 2024. Leading that class were five top-100 additions: No. 3 overall transfer and No. 1 defensive lineman, Walter Nolen (Texas A&M); No. 18 transfer and No. 2 ranked edge, Princely Umanmielen (Florida); No. 26 transfer and No. 4 wideout, Antwane Wells Jr. (South Carolina); No. 46 transfer and No. 8 corner, Trey Amos (Alabama); and No. 51 transfer and No. 2 ranked linebacker, Chris Paul Jr. (Arkansas). Other transfers contributing to that No. 1 overall team rating are: running back Rashad Amos (Miami OH), safety Yam Banks (South Alabama), offensive lineman Julius Buelow (Washington), running back Logan Diggs (LSU), cornerback Isaiah Hamilton (Houston), offensive lineman Nate Kalepo (Washington), safety Key Lawrence (Oklahoma), safety Louis Moore (Indiana), offensive lineman Diego Pounds (North Carolina), offensive lineman Gerquan Scott (Southern Miss), cornerback Brandon Turnage (Tennessee) and tight end Dae’Quan Wright (Virginia Tech).
JJ PEGUES RECEIVES CHUCKY MULLINS AWARD
Ole Miss DT JJ Pegues was recently named the winner of the 2024 Chucky Mullins Courage Award. The award, sponsored by Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, honors the late Chucky Mullins, who had his Ole Miss career come to an end during the 1989 Homecoming game against Vanderbilt when he was paralyzed after making a tackle. After returning to his studies at Ole Miss, Mullins passed away May 6, 1991. An Oxford native, Pegues is the 34th recipient in the 35-year history of the award. He will wear the No. 38 jersey at home, but will remain in his No. 89 on the road. Pegues ended 2023 with career highs in tackles (42), tackles for loss (8.0), sacks (3.5) and PBU (4) while also adding two QB hurries. Pegues is heavily active within the Lafayette-Oxford-University community and has been named to the Wuerffel Trophy watch list for 2024.
CAUSING MAYHEM
Much of the attention of the Lane Kiffin era has been on Ole Miss’ high-flying offenses, but the Rebel defenses have caused damage of their own. Ole Miss has notched at least 35 sacks in each of the last three seasons for the first time since the sack became an official college statistic in 1983. Senior DE Jared Ivey returns as one of its two co-sack leaders from 2023 after tallying a career-high 5.5 sacks last season. In total, 18.5 of those 35 sacks return from last season, with the likes of DT JJ Pegues (3.5), LB Suntarine Perkins (3.5), DT Akelo Stone (2.5) and LB Khari Coleman (2.5). In the Kiffin era, Ole Miss has recorded multiple sacks in 34 games, at least 5.0 tackles for loss in 32 games, and at least 4.0 sacks in 18 games. In games under Kiffin with at least 5.0 tackles for loss, Ole Miss is 23-9, and in games with at least 4.0 sacks, the Rebels are 10-3.
LEAD THE WAY
Senior QB Jaxson Dart is in his third season as Ole Miss’ starting quarterback, and he enters the 2024 campaign as one of the more decorated signal-callers nationwide. Dart is the active career leader among SEC quarterbacks who played in the conference last season in passing yards per game (240.3), total offense per game (273.0), yards per attempt (8.5) and total offense per play (7.4). In the FBS ranks, Dart is one of just nine returning QBs with at least 4,000 career passing yards and 1,000 career rushing yards, one of six at 7K/1K and one of five at 7.5K/1K -- the lone SEC returner at the latter two thresholds. Spanning back to his freshman season at USC in 2021, Dart owns a career line of 576-of 909 (63.4 percent) for 7,691 yards, 52 touchdowns and a career rushing line of 1,046 yards and 11 scores on 269 carries. From his two seasons with the Rebels across 2022 and 2023, Dart has gone 459-of-720 for 6,338 yards and 43 touchdowns through the air, while racking up 1,003 yards and nine touchdowns rushing on 247 attempts.
WINNING THE TURNOVER BATTLE
A key to Ole Miss’ historic success in 2023 was its edge in the turnover game. The Rebels led the FBS in fewest turnovers with only seven all season, while also leading the SEC and ranking fifth nationally in turnover margin at +11. The Rebel defense did its part with its 13 interceptions and five fumble recoveries, but it was the powerful -- yet careful -- Ole Miss offense that helped pad that margin, with only six interceptions thrown and one lost fumble all season.
NO-FLY ZONE
Ole Miss ended the 2023 season ranked second in the SEC with 13 interceptions, the most by a Rebel defense since the 2015 squad picked off 15 passes. The Rebel defense had six different defenders nab an INT and 18 separate defenders break up a pass across the 2023 season, including a team-leading three picks apiece by returning seniors John Saunders Jr. and Trey Washington. Ole Miss picked off two passes apiece in a torrid three-game stretch of incredible pass defense last season against Arkansas, Auburn and Vanderbilt, yielding just 437 combined passing yards in those three games. That stretch of multi-interception games marked the first such streak since 2014.
STINGY DEFENSE
The Landshark defense went on a tear in October, helping lift Ole Miss in three straight victories against Arkansas, Auburn and Vanderbilt, but doing so in different ways. The Rebel defense stifled the Razorbacks to just 36 yards on the ground back on Oct. 7, the fewest yielded to an SEC opponent by Ole Miss since shutting out Tennessee to zero rushing yards back on Oct. 18, 2014. Ole Miss followed that up with lockdown passing defense performances against Auburn, Vanderbilt and ULM that rank among the best by the Rebels since 2014 -- with the 60 yielded to the Commodores tying to the fewest in that span. In terms of total offense, those three games against Arkansas (288), Auburn (275) and Vanderbilt (229) constituted the first three-game stretch of holding SEC opponents to fewer than 300 yards since a span from the end of the 2008 season (vs. Mississippi State, 24 yards) and the beginning of the 2009 season (at South Carolina, 285 yards; at Vanderbilt, 240 yards). The last time Ole Miss held three straight SEC opponents to fewer than 300 yards within the same season was in 1993 in a stretch against Alabama (279), LSU (299) and Mississippi State (279).
BIG BOOT
Senior kicker and Lou Groza Award watch list member Caden Davis played a crucial role in Ole Miss’ historic 2023 season, scoring 99 total points for the Rebels after going 18-of-23 on field goals and a perfect 45-of-45 on PATs. On field goals, Davis was a perfect 7-for-7 from 20-29 yards, 4-for-5 from 30-39 yards, 5-for-7 from 40-49 yards and 2-for-4 from 50 yards or further. Davis is one of only five kickers in Ole Miss history with multiple 50-yard field goals in the same season alongside Cloyce Hinton (1970), Tim Montz (1996), Jonathan Nichols (2003) and Andrew Ritter (2013). Davis’ 50-yard successes came from 52 yards out in Ole Miss’ Peach Bowl victory over Penn State and a crucial 56-yarder late on the road at No. 22 Tulane – the fourth-longest in Ole Miss history and the longest by a Rebel since 1988. Davis’ perfect PAT season ranks him among only 20 such seasons in Ole Miss history, the first since 2015. He also handled the vast majority of kickoff duties, notching 72 touchbacks on 87 attempts for 5,594 yards and a 64.3 average per kick.
