McCready: Texas Bowl performance raises questions for Kiffin, Ole Miss

One shouldn’t overreact to a loss in a bowl game.

That’s a Cardinal rule of sorts, certainly in today’s college football.

That said, one shouldn’t completely under-react, either.

Ole Miss lost to Texas Tech, 42-25, Wednesday night in the TaxAct Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium in Houston. It was a bizarre night for the Rebels, with Lane Kiffin going for it on multiple fourth downs, faking a punt deep in Ole Miss territory and more. The Rebels were dominated on both sides of the football, on the sideline, in the stands, everywhere.

Ole Miss finished the season with an 8-5 mark, losers of five of its final six games. Texas Tech finished with an 8-6 mark as well, thoroughly happy with a win coming on the day the Red Raiders extended coach Joey McGuire with a new deal to keep him in Lubbock.

So, what to make of Wednesday night?

It’s tough to blame this one on the Alabama hangover. It’s tough to blame this on the Kiffin/Auburn saga, either.

Maybe it’s fair to ask a couple of questions:

One, just how good was this team and two, was this a by-product of culture, or a lack thereof?

In hindsight, this was a good, albeit flawed, Ole Miss team. It beat Troy in Week 1, and the Trojans finished the season 12-2. It beat Kentucky in Week 5 by a heartbeat. It trailed Vanderbilt at halftime and endured way too much drama before beating Auburn in Week 7.

The Rebels were blown out in the second half in Baton Rouge, beat Texas A&M and likely should’ve beaten Alabama. They were mauled in the first half in Fayetteville and were sluggish in a two-point Egg Bowl loss.

Ole Miss was a thin team. Jaxson Dart was solid at quarterback. Quinshon Judkins led an amazing running back unit. They were good but far from great at receiver. The offensive line struggled frequently. The defense was good early before showing real deficiencies stopping the running game. The Rebels could’ve beaten Alabama and Mississippi State, but they could’ve easily lost to Kentucky. In short, they were a good team that feasted on a soft early schedule. It’s what many predicted.

Question No. 2 is a better one, and it’s more difficult to answer. Ole Miss’ roster is chock full of transfer portal players. Kiffin, the self-proclaimed Portal King, relied heavily on the portal. In July, he repeatedly expressed concern about culture. At 7-0, culture wasn’t an issue. At 7-3, with title hopes dashed and rumors about Kiffin’s future prevalent, questions about culture resurfaced. People inside the program raised those questions privately. Maybe that’s hindsight. Maybe it’s real. Again, it’s impossible to say for sure.

What was obvious, however, was Ole Miss wasn’t sharp at Arkansas or in Oxford against Mississippi State. A month-plus later, the Rebels were downright weird in Houston. Frankly, Texas Tech looked like a team excited to be playing in the postseason versus a team going through the motions.

Effective at the final buzzer Wednesday night, the answer to the first question doesn’t really matter. Effective at the final buzzer Wednesday, the answer to the second question is of paramount importance.

Does Kiffin’s form of roster-building work? Is it effective when adversity hits? Can you live through the portal to the point that the program lacks a real base? These are all real questions. They’re not rhetorical. To this date, no one can say, positively or negatively. The jury is out.

Ole Miss signed just 12 high school players on National Signing Day, the overwhelming majority of which were highly-ranked, heavily-pursued prospects. Based on that number, however, it appears Ole Miss has every intention of diving heavily into the portal over the next few weeks — and likely again in the late spring.

Is that wise? Is it how a program is best built? Again, we simply don’t know, but it’s more than fair to wonder. It’s not how Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, etc., are building their programs. Those programs have more resources, sure, but let’s be honest; they also have coaches who relentlessly recruit. That can’t be said about Kiffin.

A year ago, when Ole Miss jumped head-first into the portal, the Rebels were coming off a 10-3 season and a Sugar Bowl berth. Almost 12 months later, Ole Miss hasn’t won since late October and just lost to a 7-5 Texas Tech team in a made-for-ESPN bowl game with no real meaning whatsoever.

Here’s what’s unquestionable at this point: Kiffin has lost a lot of capital in a couple of months. His aloof persona isn’t quite so lovable after the finish to this season. That Twitter account isn’t quite as cute now. Kiffin can question fans about attendance/commitment, make snide comments about NIL and go for it on fourth down at his own 10-yard-line all he’d like. From this point forward, however, fans will likely push back — at least a little

Kiffin turned an 8-5 season and Auburn’s interest into $9 million a season moving forward. It’s only fair, therefore, for Ole Miss and its fans to expect $9 million worth of results. That didn’t happen in November and it damn sure didn’t happen on Wednesday night against a mediocre Texas Tech team.

Maybe the Rebels just weren’t good enough to win more. Maybe it was culture. Maybe it was some combination thereof. It’s Kiffin’s job to figure that out.