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Summer flew by. It always does. If anything, it feels like it goes faster and faster every year. If I ever figure out how to slow down Father Time, I’ll let you know.
Regardless, here we are, about to turn the calendar to August. The start of a new school year in Oxford — our last first day — is Thursday. I always wondered how I’d feel when this academic year rolled around, and now that it’s here, I still don’t have that answer. There’s one final club season, one final high school season, some college visits and a college decision on deck. There’s a reality that at this time next year, we’ll be preparing to load the truck for a move and we’ll return to an empty house for the first time in 24 years.
I’m determined to try to enjoy the moments and not stare at the proverbial clock this year, but I know that’s going to be easier said than done.
1. This week also marks the beginning of the 2024 college football season. Ole Miss “reports” on Tuesday and begins practice on Wednesday. The Rebels open the season at home Aug. 31 versus Furman.
This is my 17th season on the beat. Without question, it’s the most anticipated season of Ole Miss football during that time. There was real buzz in 2009, but there were signs early on — literally during preseason camp — that showed that buzz was overdone. Hugh Freeze’s 2014, 2015 and 2016 teams generated a lot of preseason talk, but I’m not sure anyone talked about the Rebels really competing for the national title before those seasons began. Lane Kiffin’s last two teams had high expectations, but again, I don’t know anyone who objectively believed those were teams that were going to compete at the very highest level in January.
A year ago, Ole Miss went 11-2, losing at Alabama and at Georgia. The Rebels defeated Penn State in Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta to end the season in the top 10. They crushed the transfer portal and saw every key contributor — sans Quinshon Judkins — return for the 2024 season. Throw in the debut of the 12-team College Football Playoff this year and the Rebels are almost unanimously considered a title contender.
Houston Nutt ran from that talk in 2009. Hugh Freeze didn’t bite into it either, not even when he fielded one of the league’s most talented teams. Kiffin, who has been part of national titles as an assistant at both USC and Alabama, doesn’t seem fazed by the expectations. He repeatedly says his team has a lot of work to do — and it does — but he’s not backtracking or talking down the lofty rhetoric about the Rebels.
2. So, as the season arrives, I probably have to start asking Ole Miss players and coaches the question I get asked the most when I make appearances on others’ shows and podcasts — Is anything less than a spot in the CFP a failure for Ole Miss this year?
