If you’ve ever met a true-blue Ole Miss fan, you’ve probably heard them say, “We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party.”
Try as they might on the field, "The Grove" and the fanbase’s elaborate tailgates define their program.
Despite its best efforts, Ole Miss has never produced a Heisman Trophy winner. The Rebels haven’t won the Southeastern Conference since integration, and they’ve never even made it to the SEC Championship game since its inception in 1992.
But that could all change this fall. Let's dive into my Ole Miss college football futures and NCAAF picks for the 2025 season.
Austin Simmons To Win Heisman Trophy
+4000 · BetMGM
The natural pushback on Simmons winning the Heisman is that he’s a first-year starter. But you may be surprised to learn that there's a rich tradition of quarterbacks winning the Heisman with little to no starting experience.
Bryce Young had zero starts and just 22 career pass attempts under his belt before his Heisman season in 2021. Kyler Murray had just four career starts (three at Texas A&M, one at Oklahoma) before he took the college football world by storm in 2018.
Jameis Winston, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton and Tim Tebow didn’t start a single FBS game prior to their Heisman breakouts. Six of the last 14 Heisman-winning quarterbacks, dating back to 2007, had limited or zero starting experience.
It’s completely reasonable for a relative unknown to win this prestigious honor.
Simmons is incredibly gifted, athletically and intellectually. He graduated from high school three years early, carrying so many college credits with him that he’s on pace to earn his bachelor’s degree in sports medicine at the age of 19.
His 94 MPH fastball also has Major League Baseball teams interested in his services.
And when the impressive lefty stepped onto the football field last season, he made a big impression. Simmons took the field against Georgia when Jaxson Dart sustained an ankle injury.
He calmly picked apart the UGA defense, completing 5-of-6 attempts for 64 yards. Ole Miss would score a touchdown on his lone drive of the game and go on to upset the third-ranked Bulldogs.
In short, he’s the real deal.
Ole Miss Over 8.5 Wins
-140 · DraftKings
If Simmons is the breakout star in the SEC this fall, Ole Miss will win 10 or 11 games. A big reason for that is the schedule.
Mississippi avoids both Alabama and Texas this fall, and gets Florida, LSU and South Carolina in Oxford. The Rebels' nonconference slate is cake now that Tulane lost Darian Mensah to Duke and TJ Finley to legal trouble.
The schedule also allows Ole Miss time to break in new contributors across its two-deep.
The Rebels open with Georgia State and then draw a Kentucky team with major questions along the offensive line.
From a pure talent perspective, Lane Kiffin has assembled a roster that is borderline top-10 in overall quality, thanks to 10 four-star recruits filtering into the program via the transfer portal.
If they gel, they’ll have the upper hand in terms of talent in 10 of their 12 games this season. Only Georgia and LSU will have them outclassed in the personnel department, and they beat UGA last fall and took LSU to overtime.
Ole Miss to Win SEC
+1100 · FanDuel
The SEC is wide open.
Arch Manning could be a superstar, but Texas is replacing four starters on its offensive line and six on defense.
Alabama no longer has the psychological advantage it enjoyed under Nick Saban, and LSU — despite its obvious skill-position talent — found a way to lose four games last fall.
And then there’s Georgia, which remains hamstrung by Mike Bobo as a playcaller.
This is all to say the door is open for Ole Miss to finally make a trip to Atlanta in early December. At this price, the Rebels are the best value on the board.
