Ole Miss Rebels HC Lane Kiffin has easy decision to make with Austin Simmons as Trinidad Chambliss holds 2025 season in his hands

Austin Simmons can play in just one more game before he burns a possible medical redshirt season

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor

Oct 3, 2025 6:13 PM EDT

As Ole Miss heads into their bye week quarterback Austin Simmons is still not 100% healthy and Trinidad Chambliss has been playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the entire country. Lane Kiffin has repeatedly talked about how good a problem this is to have, with two quarterbacks he trusts whenever they both finally get healthy, but there’s an easy decision to make with Simmons given how the season has played out so far.

It is impossible to take Chambliss of the field at this point considering he’s playing near perfect football, averaging over 400 yards of total offense per game, adding value as a rusher, and avoiding pressure and sacks at an elite rate. Simmons has played snaps in three games so far, and rushing him back from any injury would be a poor decision. So, what to do? Ole Miss needs to plan for him to take a medical redshirt, but only if the season plays out perfectly.

Austin Simmons should take medical redshirt if Trinidad Chambliss remains healthy

When the season began it was supposed to be Austin Simmons’ time. He had somewhat surprisingly already been on Ole Miss’ campus since 2023 after graduating high school two years early with over a 4.0 GPA. Simmons sat out and redshirted in 2023. He was eased into action in seven games in 2024. Now, with an injury still lingering and the 2025 season resting in Trinidad Chambliss’ hands, Simmons doesn’t need to force it here.

Chambliss is playing like an absolute stud so far this season, padding the stats on both the ground and through the air in his three starts. The former D-II national champion is in his final season of eligibility, so even if Chambliss balls out all season long and Simmons takes his medical redshirt, the starting job could (and should) be his in 2026 with three years of eligibility still remaining.

The key for Simmons’ keeping his redshirt will come down to Chambliss staying healthy the rest of the way. Simmons can only play in one more game before burning what could be a medical redshirt season (max is four games, the fifth game nullifies a redshirt year).

The question many have had throughout this somewhat unique situation has been, “How will Austin Simmons receive a plan like this?”

We already have our answer. While there were some early rumblings that Simmons might be unhappy with the situation, that’s been proven completely false based on how he’s handled himself on and off the field this season. Just look at the celebration between Simmons and Chambliss immediately after Ole Miss took down LSU in the post below.

Simmons has been nothing but a class act so far and that likely continues. Questions will almost assuredly keep coming for Lane Kiffin on the situation, but Ole Miss is probably going to lay out this exact plan to keep Simmons in the mix all year as an emergency quarterback, but to ultimately medically redshirt him. We still don’t know if he might be better off undergoing some sort of surgery once the season is complete as well. If that’s the case this becomes even more of a no-brainer.

Regardless of how this plays out, Ole Miss is on pace for what could be one of the best season’s in program history. Let’s hope the momentum keeps rolling on here soon.

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