SEC · Pete Golding, year 2 (4-1) · Vaught-Hemingway Stadium · 64,038 · 68,134 avg in 2026
LastW 41–9 vs Charlotte · Sat Sep 12 · Kewan Lacy 87 rush yds, 2 TD
Nextvs LSU · Sat Sep 19 · 7:30 pm ET · Vaught-Hemingway Stadium · LSU by 3 · series 41-64-4 · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
| Wk | Date | Us | Opp | Line | Opponent | Result | Record | Conf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 6 | #12 | #61 | -6.5✗ | Louisville (N)Top 25 win | W 41–38 146 | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| 2 | Sep 12 | #11 | #179 | -44.5✗ | Charlotte | W 41–9 119 | 2-0 | 0-0 |
| 3 | Sep 19 | #13 | #24 | +3 | LSU | |||
| 4 | Sep 26 | #13 | #21 | @Florida | ||||
| 6 | Oct 10 | @Vanderbilt | ||||||
| 7 | Oct 17 | Missouri | ||||||
| 8 | Oct 24 | @Texas | ||||||
| 9 | Oct 31 | Auburn | ||||||
| 10 | Nov 7 | Georgia | ||||||
| 11 | Nov 14 | @Oklahoma | ||||||
| 12 | Nov 21 | Wofford | ||||||
| 13 | Nov 27 | Mississippi State |
| Date | Opp | Result | Yds | TO | TOP | EPA/play | Success% | Explosive% | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 12 | Charlotte | W 41–9 | 420 | 1 | 22:46 | +0.381 | 63.9% | 104.0% | |
| Sep 6 | Louisville | W 41–38 | 488 | 2 | 29:02 | +0.293 | 46.8% | 131.0% | |
| Season average (2 games) | 454 | 1.5 | +0.337 | 55.4% | 117.5% | ||||
Ole Miss reached its first College Football Playoff and came within four points of the semifinal — then watched Lane Kiffin leave for LSU before the snow had melted, and finished the run anyway.
For decades the fanbase heard that Oxford was a tailgate with a football team attached — a beautiful place that didn't win enough to deserve the Grove. They point now at a 13-2 Playoff team and dare a…
The season in chapters
What fans said
Real posts from the day of the game, chosen by community score · usernames not shown
What it is like to watch them2025 · 13-2 · last season
✓ measured from 15 games · ranks are among SEC teams the same season
Recent form · last 10 games · incl. 2025
Warming. 9-1 over the last 10, and won the last two.
It’s not as if we can really expand our workforce to accommodate that because then folks get robbed during off-peak times
Next Sep 19
vs LSU · at home
✓ fact on line · ~ our read on style
Market outlook
Sportsbook consensus · best odds across multiple books · 2026-09-14
the open questionis the portal class enough to move the needle?
Lane Kiffin's fifth consecutive top-25 portal class rebuilds nearly everything at once — 4% of QB production returns, and the market projects a 7.5-win season despite the upheaval.
our readdeveloping
Pete Golding's first season opens with a 13-2 record and a 0.5-win jump, but the program's uneasy fanbase questions if Ole Miss can sustain success without mimicking Alabama.
our readdeveloping
Lane Kiffin's sixth straight top-25 class arrives as Ole Miss rebuilds nearly everything at once — 18% production returning, 2 NFL exits, and a 13-2 season that proves winning without.
our readfront page
Ole Miss: an outside ruling reshaping the program's season.
our readdeveloping
Ole Miss has reached elite-tier consistency — Lane Kiffin's sixth season marks the first time the Rebels have held top-5% power rating for three straight years.
our readfront page
Pete Golding took over as Ole Miss's head coach, replacing Lane Kiffin.
our readdeveloping
Pete Golding begins his Ole Miss tenure with a 13-2 record and a #6 AP finish, but the program's uneasy fanbase questions if the playoff path can be secured without mimicking Alabama.
our readdeveloping
Lane Kiffin's top-3 SEC portal class rebuilds nearly everything at once — 4% of QB production returns, and the market projects a 10.5-win season despite the upheaval.
our readdeveloping
Cayden Lee is used almost exclusively underneath -- a low share of his targets are downfield shots.
our readbackground
Dae'Quan Wright is used almost exclusively underneath -- a low share of his targets are downfield shots.
our readbackground
Kewan Lacy does NOT see a usage spike in garbage time -- his workload holds steady regardless of score.
our readbackground
Kewan Lacy: a short yardage signal screened this season.
our readbackground
Logan Diggs: a closer signal screened this season.
our readbackground
Lane Kiffin enters his sixth season with a 13-2 record, but the program's uneasy fanbase questions if Ole Miss can sustain its national power status without pretending to be Alabama.
our readdeveloping
Pete Golding begins his Ole Miss tenure with a 13-2 winning record, but the program's uneasy fanbase questions if the NIL-driven roster can sustain SEC success without Alabama's blueprint.
our readfront page
Outcome band · Ole Miss · 2026
Floor, base and ceiling come from the season-path projection, which plays out conference title games and the CFP — so a ceiling can run past 12 games.
Ole Miss signed a top-2 transfer-portal class — 28 additions headlined by Deuce Knight (QB) from Auburn and Walker Howard (QB) from Louisiana. It is fifth consecutive top-25 portal class. Portal pickups are proven college players — the split isn't about development, it's about whether they fit the scheme and win their position battles. Coverage is split on whether volume or positional fit is the bigger story.
The off-field storyline driving the noise right now. Not analysis — the soap opera, and that's the point.
The 'portal class fills the gaps' believers -- upgrades at real positions of need.
The 'portal is a gamble' counter -- departure losses and the 'plug-and-play doesn't work' read.
This event was in 35 of 2706 board posts (1%) over the last 60 days — engaged but not consumed. Fan text shown verbatim, attributed to the community not the individual poster.
The boards ≠ the fanbase: a vocal, self-selected slice.
Ole Miss signed a top-22 recruiting class. It is sixth consecutive top-25 recruiting class. A class in the top 25 means the program competed nationally. Attrition and development are the next story. The bulls are loud — the coverage treats this class as a program-level statement.
The optimistic read: the class is real, the program is a destination again.
The 'rankings don't tell the whole story' counter -- development gaps, position holes still open.
Nothing in our corpus yet — this door stays open for when there is.
This event was in 78 of 2706 board posts (3%) over the last 60 days — engaged but not consumed. Fan text shown verbatim, attributed to the community not the individual poster.
The boards ≠ the fanbase: a vocal, self-selected slice.
Fan mood index · most recent r/cfb data
More in this tab
Ole Miss is the program that finally figured out how to win the SEC by not pretending to be Alabama.
The program ledger
since 2025Swinney denies Kiffin tampering report
Swinney crying tampering while Ole Miss juggles IOL pressure and a roster still digesting two draft exits — Kiffin's program is moving pieces and Clemson's coach doesn't like the noise it's making.
Win total: 7.5 → 8.5 (▲1)
The 7.5 to 8.5 move confirmed what was already public — the market repriced after the news landed.
Ole Miss DL enters portal after gaining eligibility
DL depth takes a hit right as Echoles and Thomas are drawing Bednarik attention — Pete Golding can't afford roster bleed up front when the SEC schedule doesn't care about your portal class rank.
Ole Miss athletes gain eligibility year
Extra eligibility across the roster hits different when your IOL depth is already under pressure — Kiffin's #22 class gets a year of insurance that a two-draft-loss roster genuinely needs.
SEC seeks to remove LSU
If the SEC is serious about removing LSU, Ole Miss — climbing toward dynasty chatter with an 8.5 win total and a top-25 class — stands to inherit the most from any power vacuum in Baton Rouge.
Zxavian Harris commits to LSU
Harris flips in-conference to LSU while Golding's still piecing together what Kiffin left behind — losing a DT to your SEC West rival when the IOL and D-line rooms are already under pressure is the kind of roster bleed a #22 class can't fully paper over.
Top 3 commits
Recruiting Footprint · 2026
MS leads the 2026 class with 9 commits. National footprint reaching 8 states.
Where they recruit · 2023-2026
86 signees across 12 states, 2023-2026. MS leads the pull.
Miles from home · 2026 roster
The median Ole Miss player grew up 297 miles from campus.
Half this roster came from closer than that; half came from farther.
Straight-line distance from each player's listed hometown to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Hometowns are placed at city-centroid precision, not street address — fine at this scale, but a player's true door-to-door number can differ by a few miles. 116 of 123 listed players have a geocoded hometown. Source: CFBD roster hometowns.
Top community posts · last 12 months · r/cfb
Fan confidence a bit lower than recent years
20th percentile among FBS programs
68 of 68 AP voters have them ranked, AP ballot, week 3 (2026) — from #4, Murray Evans (Lawton Constitution), to #13, Jon Wilner (San Jose Mercury News).
Individual AP Top 25 ballots, AP ballot, week 3, 2026 — 68 voters tracked.
Roughly even on flags: 13 penalties committed vs. 16 drawn on opponents.
112 penalty yards committed vs. 121 drawn on opponents, 2026 season total.
Outcome band · Ole Miss · 2026
Recruiting Footprint · 2026