Thoughts from Ole Miss 63-7 win over Georgia State
Some thoughts from the Rebels' win, what comes next and more.
Ole Miss kicked off its season with a 63-7 thrashing of Georgia Southern.
I did not figure we would learn a ton about an Ole Miss team that I feel is more of an unknown commodity than any team in the Kiffin era, other than his first one ( that weird, COVID-riddled 2020 season), but here are a handful of observations I had from the win.
Simmons’ career begins in earnest
Austin Simmons waited two years for this. On Saturday, he took the field for his first collegiate start. It’s now his team and he’s the face of this program. Simmons is a remarkable talent. I did a story on him this summer that you can read here. In reporting that story, I spoke to several of Austin’s family members, coaches and even his childhood tutor. His father is a former collegiate athlete and is a high school football coach. His mother is a first generation Bahamian immigrant who works as an admissions counselor for a college. His entire life to this point has been structured by two pillars: sports and an expedited education track. Austin was home-schooled from the time he was in eighth grade. He graduated high school two years early. His father has been the architect of his athletic life since Austin could walk, and now, he’s an SEC quarterback on the precipice of stardom.
Simmons’ debut went about how I expected. The arm talent is clearly elite. When scouts and evaluators use the phrase “the ball just looks different coming out of his hand,” think of Simmons, because he is a textbook example of what that phrase means. That was clearly on display on Saturday. He also made mistakes. He threw two interceptions. One was a poor decision on a throw into the end zone. The other one wasn’t really his fault as he was ambushed by defensive linemen that breached the interior of Ole Miss’ offensive line, hit him and affected the throw. Those two things. decision-making and protection will tell the tale of Simmons’ 2025 season — and Ole Miss’ for that matter.
If Ole Miss can protect Simmons, he will thrive. If Simmons can limit poor decisions, the offense will thrive. It reminds me of Jaxson Dart’s 2022 season at Ole Miss. Most fans rightfully remember Dart as a poised decision-maker who was tough as hell and the leader of the team. But if you think back to the 2022 season, Dart’s first full year as a starter at the collegiate level, he made a handful of head-scratching decisions throwing the football in most games. It’s natural for any young, inexperienced quarterback. There will be growing pains with Simmons, too. How quickly he is able to learn how to mitigate them will drastically shape the trajectory of Ole Miss’ season.
One thing that stuck out to me about Simmons is that he’s clearly up to the challenge from a mental standpoint. He made a bad throw on that interception, but it wasn’t due to trepidation or a lack of poise, but rather being too aggressive. He is clearly ready for this moment and prepared to take on this role. I talked to Simmons a couple of weeks before that story was published. I asked him about that drive against Georgia last November, when he replaced an injured Jaxson Dart, led the team on a touchdown drive that shifted the momentum of that game — a drive that really kickstarted the hype surrounding him entering this year. I asked him if he was nervous in that moment. He scoffed at the notion and told me that he’s never been nervous before a sporting event in his life. The matter-of-fact manner that he discussed that drive and how he simply did his job the way he was supposed to do it was pretty remarkable for someone who lacked experience. What he certainly does not lack is confidence.
In my opinion, the first throw Simmons made after the end zone interception (the one that was a poor decision on his part) is emblematic of his confidence.
He threw a perfect football to Penn State transfer Trey Wallace down the far sideline. Simmons finished with a line of 20-31 for 341 yards, three touchdowns and the two interceptions. It’s tough to definitively analyze a quarterback after one game against an inferior opponent, but on a Saturday in which young, inexperienced quarterbacks across the country struggled in their debuts, Simmons certainly looked the part.
The offensive line, yet again, appears to be a potential liability
The Ole Miss offensive line did not have a great day on Saturday, particularly the interior offensive line. Simmons was sacked just one time, a number that would have likely been higher if not for Simmons’ mobility. Georgia State registered four quarterback hurries.
The Simmons interception that was not his fault didn’t come as result of a blitz or a pass rusher on the edge getting to Simmons, right guard Patrick Kutas got beat so badly, an interior defensive lineman hit Simmons before he released the football — a scenario that is not exactly common as far as a pass rush and turnovers are concerned. There is a reason that, generally speaking, defensive tackles don’t register high sack numbers. It’s usually the defensive ends and edge players that get to the quarterback. Lane Kiffin had an interesting quote about this play.
“Yeah, that one wasn’t his fault,” Kiffin said. “The right guard gets beat. They’re in a blown coverage and we are going to score a 70-yard touchdown walking into the end zone, yet the guy that blows the coverage is who picks it off.”
The right guard Kiffin is referring to is Arkansas transfer Patrick Kutas, who Ole Miss signed with the hope that he would improve an offensive line that is the most glaring reason that an uber-talented 2024 Rebels team did not make the college football playoff. Georgia State sent pressure into the interior of Ole Miss’ offensive line and had great success in doing so.
Ole Miss started Brycen Sanders at center, Charlotte transfer P.J. Wilkins at left guard, Diego Pounds at left tackle and Jaydin Williams at right tackle.
I am not at all a savant on offensive line play, and I always hesitate to give opinions/criticize specific positions on performance because there is so much that goes into it that I don’t understand. With that said, to me, it seemed like Kutas and Wilkins really struggled at the two guard spots, and that while Sanders seemingly played fine, the ineptitude on either side of him made his life harder — again, just my uneducated opinion.
Entering the season, the offensive line was seemingly the biggest concern surrounding this Ole Miss team (much like last year). Also like last year, Ole Miss is dealing with some injuries that occurred before the season. UAB transfer Delano Townsend and Maryland transfer Terez Davis did not play in the game and it’s been widely speculated that both are dealing with injuries, though it doesn’t sound like either guy is expected to miss the entirety of the season. So, in fairness, Ole Miss is not dealing with a full deck on the offensive line.
One of the concerning aspects of the offensive line, in my opinion, is that we watched a similar script last year. To refresh your memory, last year, the Rebels dealt with injuries to Caleb Warren and (USM transfer) Gerquan Scott in the preseason, then veteran Jeremy James got injured week one. Losing three key contributors before week two is a tough pill for any team to swallow. The alarming lesson we learned last year is that, even when those guys got healthy, a fragile Ole Miss offensive line didn’t actually get any better. It got worse. And two of the three aforementioned injured players never made their way back to significant playing time. So, while the fact that Ole Miss is yet again without two players on the offensive line, that it believes can help them win football games, I have a hard time believing their return will be some drastic difference-making factor in the unit’s performance, mostly based on prior history.
The last thing I would like to harp on when it comes to the offensive line is the strategy of building it. To preface that, let’s remember that it’s only week one. This unit could absolutely just need some time to gel and could become a serviceable offensive line. But after a season in which a generationally-talented Ole Miss team missed the 12-team College Football Playoff largely due to ineptitude on the offensive line, the program’s strategy in rectifying the issue is bizarre to me. Lane Kiffin has a pretty damn good track record of hiring assistant coaches. His batting average is pretty high. He’s never shown much hesitation in changing coaching staff members to improve a specific aspect of his program. But after last year’s offensive line debacle, he elected to retain offensive line coach John Garrison. Ole Miss then brought in five transfer linemen: Kutas, Davis, Townsend, Wilkins and (Auburn transfer) Percy Lewis.
It seems clear they are going to rely on four of those five to be significant contributors. What is puzzling about this strategy to me is that it is identical to the strategy that led to the 2024 debacle — except with lesser players. Prior to the 2024 season, Ole Miss paid top dollar for the pair of Washington transfers, Julius Buelow and Nate Kalepo — a pair seen as the cream of the crop of the available offensive line portal talent, as well as Pounds (North Carolina). The results were horrific. Yet, Ole Miss seemingly changed nothing about how they approached rectifying the issue this offseason. Same coach, same concept of portaling together an offensive line. Obviously, there are a variety of factors in all of this that I am not privy to, but generally speaking, it looks like doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result — which is the definition of insanity.
Poor offensive line play is an epidemic across Power Four College Football. On the Rippee Writes podcast, I did opponent previews with all eight SEC opponents Ole Miss plays this year — every single writer, with the exception of Florida beat writer Graham Hall, identified offensive line play as a cause for concern for the programs they cover. It’s not a coincidence. NIL and the transfer portal have created an ecosystem of rapid roster turnover and 50-plus newcomers on a team becoming the norm. The offensive line is really the only position group in football that is not conducive to that. High school recruiting matters. Development matters. It’s the only position group in which plug-and-play out of high school is nearly impossible. Offensive linemen enter a college program out of high school and need to gain muscle mass and weight, and the adjustment to SEC defensive lines compared to high school defensive lines is likely the largest gap to cover compared to any other position group in the sport.
Unless Devin Harper, a talented true freshman Ole Miss signed out of Calvary Baptist HS in Shreveport, Louisiana, plays this year — Sanders is the only offensive lineman that will contribute to this team that the program signed out of high school. To use a term I was known for in my radio days: that seems suboptimal.
I don’t blame Ole Miss for going out and signing more portal guys to fix it. If the staff doesn’t believe it has enough developed high school prospects on the roster that are ready to play, then I suppose the portal is the only option. I just know that the offensive line appears to be a problem yet again, and Ole Miss seemingly didn’t alter its approach at all in terms of fixing it, which is puzzling.
Again, it’s one game. If the offensive line plays well over the next four games and the Rebels are 5-0 after a win over LSU entering the month of October, I will happily admit I was wrong in my concern, but for now, the offensive line looks like the position group that will hold this team back more so than any other area — and it’s the second year in a row that appears to be the case.
We are thrilled to have C Spire as a sponsor of the Rippee Writes Newsletter and Podcast. It’s to upgrade your home internet to the best service in the market with C Spire Home Fiber. C Spire Home provides the most reliable internet service with 99.99% uptime. C Spire provides 1 Gigabit and 300 Megabit internet packages to homes across Mississippi, Birmingham, and southern Alabama regions. C Spire is also proud to announce the release of their brand new 2 Gigabit and 8 Gigabit home internet plans. Save yourself the hassle by not waiting for your internet connection to drop with the other guys. Call or go online to cspire.com/home today and use promo code “RIPPEE” at checkout for 1 month free service.
The Rebels are clearly more talented at running back
Missouri transfer Kewan Lacy ran the football 16 times, earned 108 yards and scored three touchdowns in the win over Georgia State. Rehashing last year’s running back debacle will likely make most of my readers want to drive into oncoming traffic, so I will spare you the misfortune of recapping that saga, but the point is that Lacy looked like an above average SEC running back. Just ask Lane Kiffin.
“I’ll just tell you how it is. We did not have that last year,” Kiffin said. “It is really good to have that That’s how he practices. He’s got a really unique skill set of speed and power. When a guy can break and not get caught, it makes it a lot easier not to call more plays afterward. That was good to see.”
I have no clue what Kiffin is referencing here, or whether or not it’s a shot at Ulysses Bentley or any of the personnel last year, but clearly he trusts Lacy more than any running back he had on the roster a year ago. It’s also hilariously ironic that Georgia State’s leading rusher in this game was Rashad Amos, but enough about that.
LSU transfer Logan Diggs was the only other ball carrier to get extensive action in the game. Diggs transferred to Ole Miss from LSU last year, but missed the entirety of the season due to a leg injury he suffered in LSU’s bowl game the previous year. Diggs played in the Gator Bowl win over Duke. I didn’t really know what to make of it, and if I am being completely honest, I didn’t have much of an opinion on his seven-carry, 91-yard output in this game. What I do know is that having a serviceable SEC running back behind Lacy will be a significant advantage for Ole Miss and I am curious to see what Diggs’ workload looks like over the next two weeks as the Rebels play Kentucky and Arkansas.
As a Rippee Writes subscriber, LB’s Meat Market will give you three 6 oz. bacon wrapped filets for $25. Just stop by, show proof of subscription and they’ll get you set up. Then go find your own favorites. It’s the best butcher shop in the world.
The pass-catching options are interesting
Describing Ole Miss’ pass-catching corps as ‘interesting’ in the header feels like a bit of a cop out. I would like to declare that the Rebels’ receivers are better and the unit is deeper than it was in 2024, but I think I need to see more. With that said, Ole Miss has a diverse and talented group of targets. Penn State transfer Trey Wallace caught five balls for 130 yards and a touchdown. Dae’Quan Wright reminded the public that he had one hell of year last season and is a really good tight end. We didn’t see a ton of Oklahoma State transfer De’Zhaun Stribling in the opener. He caught three passes for 55 yards. I make nothing of that. It’s the season opener. The staff raved about this guy in the offseason. He will be a significant factor in this offense. Veteran Cayden Lee registered two catches in this game. We all know what Lee is and what he brings to the offense, I only mention it to reiterate that judging receiving corps production after a game is silly.
Alabama transfer Caleb Odom is a physical freak and an intriguing storyline as far as how Ole Miss uses him. I am very bullish on this pass-catching corps and think it will end up yielding a much better result than the whole ‘force feed Tre Harris when things get tight’ offense of last year.
Ole Miss having Pete Golding as DC is such an undervalued advantage
Ole Miss put out a press release before the season that Pete Golding signed a contract extension that will make him the highest paid assistant in college football. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Golding has been excellent since he’s been at Ole Miss.
Ole Miss had one of the best defenses in college football last year. It was certainly not the reason the Rebels failed to make the Playoff. Ole Miss lost a lot off of that defense a year ago, which is interesting. I’ll ask, you, the reader, a question: did you hear more this offseason about Ole Miss’ potential issues on offense or defense? Personally, I heard more about the offensive line, a new quarterback and an unknown receiving corps. While valid concerns, this defense lost a boatload of talent. Why was that not more of a storyline (again, maybe it was. This is all subjective), but I think part of it is due to the track record Golding has built. He’s recruited incredibly well. Ole Miss lost Walter Nolen, J.J Pegues and Jared Ivey off the defensive line. But uber-talented prospects like Will Echoles and Kam Franklin were waiting in the wings. Golding signed LSU transfer Da’Shawn Womack, who looked dominant in the season opener.
Linebacker transfers Tahj Chambers (Missouri State) Jaden Yates (Marshall) played a lot — a combined 59 snaps — and add to a group headlined by T.J. Dottery, and (in whatever form they choose to use him) Suntarine Perkins. Chucky Mullins Award-winner Tyler Banks only got 18 snaps in the game. I am not saying anything should be made of that, it’s just indicative of Golding’s trust in the newcomers.
I could write 5,000 words on the secondary alone and what it has to replace from last year, and I likely will cover the secondary more in the coming days, but I suppose my point is that Golding, in my opinion, has proven himself to be an elite talent evaluator and a tremendous defensive coordinator. He also seems completely content in his current job and is not looking to leave for another, for a myriad of reasons.
I am going to write about this later in the week, but after watching a preseason camp load of player interviews, the way the players describe Golding is sort of fascinating to me. Each player interviewed said some variation of “the guy is a schematic genius. I don’t worry about where he moves me or what I am asked to do because I know that guy only puts players in positions in which their strengths will be maximized.”
That is, of course, not a real direct quote and a generalization of about a dozen players, but the general theme is not inaccurate. Golding seems to have a knack for establishing something with his players that is increasingly hard to achieve in this modern era in which the transfer portal and NIL give players an infinite amount of others options — trust. Golding’s player’s seem to totally trust him. That, to me, is as invaluable as anything else in this modern era of college sports.
A thank you to the readers
I have a lot more I would like to get into about this Ole Miss Football team and there is a lot more that I could have covered in week one. But at the risk of making this, a 10,000 word manifesto, that is all for now.
I want to take a moment to thank each of you out there (who clearly read to the end!) for reading and supporting this newsletter. I have not been very consistent in producing content in the last 9-12 months for a myriad of reasons, but consider this newsletter as a relaunch of what will be a regular content item in your inboxes. I want this to be something people look forward to reading and that would all be futile without your subscription and support. So, cheers to the next iteration of a great thing and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a loyal reader. You’ll hear from Rippee Writes again here real soon.
The O line has to do better or it’s gonna be a long season.