How can Lane Kiffin and Jaxson Dart still take Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff after Kentucky loss?

Kentucky football shocked the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday as they came into Oxford and won 20-17. The Wildcats had just taken Georgia down to the wire two short weeks ago in a 13-12 loss to Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs. It wasn't a complete bizarre surprise that they could hang with Ole Miss, but […]

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor
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Kentucky football shocked the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday as they came into Oxford and won 20-17. The Wildcats had just taken Georgia down to the wire two short weeks ago in a 13-12 loss to Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs. It wasn't a complete bizarre surprise that they could hang with Ole Miss, but winning in dramatic fashion on the road in the SEC is no small task.

Now Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, and once Heisman hopeful quarterback Jaxson Dart are faced with a much tougher road to the College Football Playoff. They would likely already be eliminated in the four-team format, but thanks to the new 12-Team Playoff model there's still a few ways Ole Miss can fight back and make their way in. So, how do they get it done?

2024 Ole Miss Football Schedule

  • Furman – Win, 76-0
  • MTSU – Win, 52-3
  • at Wake Forest – Win, 40-6
  • Georgia Southern – Win, 52-13
  • Kentucky – Loss 20-17
  • at South Carolina
  • at LSU
  • Oklahoma
  • at Arkansas
  • Georgia
  • at Florida
  • Mississippi State

The good news is that Ole Miss took care of business through the first four weeks of the season. The bad news is that after losing to Kentucky they have to face three ranked SEC teams in their next five games. LSU, Oklahoma, and Georgia all look like top 20 teams in the nation, and South Carolina nearly beat LSU.

It's a tough path to fight through, but it's beatable. South Carolina struggles to pass consistently. LSU's defense is still imperfect. Oklahoma and Arkansas have questionable quarterback situations. Georgia should likely defeat them, but Ole Miss can certainly go 10-2 if they take care of business.

Path to the College Football Playoff

The great part about having a tough SEC schedule is that if a team actually wins 10 games the path to the College Football Playoff is rather clear. But how is Ole Miss actually going to do it?

First off, they need to not overreact to this one loss to Kentucky and drastically change what they're doing on offense. Mark Stoops essentially attempted to play keep away all day knowing that Ole Miss would not be able to be contained if they had the ball for very long. Thus, Kentucky held onto the ball for about 40 of the 60 minutes on Saturday. Ole Miss just almost never had the ball.

When they did have the ball Jaxson Dart and Ole Miss still largely moved down the field with ease all day long through the air, averaging nearly 10 yards per pass attempt. The ground game struggled at times, but the overall offensive efficiency was still impressive. An untimely fumble and some penalties cost the Rebels a victory, but there's basically nothing wrong with the offense, despite Saturday's result. Leaning further into their fast-pace vertical passing attack against SEC defensive fronts full of big bodies who should be worn down by this approach will be key.

Second, Ole Miss needs to have Suntarine Perkins on the field for nearly every single down. The former five star phenom recruit is posting a 20% pass rush pressure rate and just snagged two more sacks against Kentucky. Princely Umanmielen is the other dominant edge rusher Ole Miss shouldn't take off the field. Jared Ivey has been playing well too, out-snapping Perkins, but he's just simply not as dynamic. And if they want to keep Ivey on the field, then Ole Miss needs to operate with a bit of a "NASCAR" package with all three on-field at once. They're all simply too good at bringing game-changing pressure to do much else.

And lastly, the team has to figure out how to fix their missed tackle issues at the second level of their defense. Ole Miss struggled to close out 3rd and longs some against Kentucky, missing tackles, getting caught out of position, and this isn't the first time that's been an issue. Ole Miss has nearly 50 missed tackles on the year. Over 30 of them from have been linebackers and defensive backs.

If Ole Miss can clean up the back end of their defense, get creative with their defensive fronts, and continue stretching opposing defenses with their high efficiency vertical passing attack they're going to be in every single one of their games throughout their SEC schedule. That should put them firmly in position to compete for a College Football Playoff spot despite the loss to Kentucky.

Be looking for more Ole Miss Football coverage here at A to Z Sports all year long! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

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