By Kyle Golik
Earlier this week, I wrote about the championship potential of Ole Miss with how head coach Lane Kiffin uses a transfer-heavy approach and complements it with traditional recruiting.
I wrote in that piece, “The self-proclaimed “Portal King” can rack up all the portal crowns he wants, but none of that matters if Ole Miss can’t win a major game or bring home any significant bowl or conference championship.”
That changed at the Peach Bowl, as Kiffin secured his first New Year’s Six win as a head coach over Penn State 38-25. Although the Nittany Lions entered the game with the nation’s No. 1 defense, Ole Miss took advantage of a unit that was depleted by injuries and opt-outs. Using its high-tempo attack, the Rebs totaled 540 yards of offense and 30 first downs.
After capping the first 11-win season in Ole Miss history, Kiffin said, “First off, that’s credit to Penn State of a big-time opponent and very well-coached and very classy program that I have a lot of respect for. I’m very excited about how our players showed up today. To come in here and have a chance to do something that’s never been done before in the history of the school, to win 11 games against a big-time program, big-time opponent, just really proud of how they did.”
While I doubt Kiffin read my previous article on the championship potential with his strategy, I took the opportunity, prior to the Peach Bowl at the joint head coach press conference, I approached the “Portal King” and laid out the question:
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Many in the media, including myself, have dubbed you the “Portal King.” Through traditional recruiting, you usually have top-20 classes. How do you balance the needs for both the portal and recruiting? And do you feel through that balance Ole Miss can get over the Alabama/Georgia hump in the SEC?
My logic in the question was in the first half, Kiffin has done wonders in the portal, scooping up elite transfers that have redefined the Ole Miss program. Ole Miss has demonstrated excellent balance in this regard.
When you look at Deion Sanders‘ strategy at Colorado, they are extremely portal-heavy, significantly more so than Ole Miss. Coach Prime doesn’t travel to high school recruits and feels that the portal is their foundation, not a supplement, to their program.
The latter half was my hook, through this strategy Kiffin has implemented at Ole Miss can win and win big. Referencing Alabama and Georgia, the only two teams that have more wins in the SEC since Kiffin’s arrival, was the guise I needed to ask, will his strategy ultimately work.
Kiffin replied:
“I don’t think many people have gotten over that hump. So I know that we get criticized when you don’t get over the Alabama hump and Georgia, but really outside of the one LSU year, I don’t know many people have. In my opinion, you build a roster — like you build a roster different depending on where you are and a lot of variables. Where we are at Ole Miss, I just feel that this is the best way to do it. We’re a very heavy portal, probably top 10 percent of teams, and I just think that’s the way to do it where we’re at. That may change someday even where we’re at, as we maybe experience more success on the field in games like this and are able to sign more five star type of high school players. So it just is what it is now, and I think eventually the rules will change some too, and we’ll just continue to evolve with that. There’s a good and bad to all of it. Ideally, the traditional model is the best if you can do that. If you can sign great high school players, 25 of them, and build that way, but I also don’t know that’s going to work quite as well as I think us coaches would all like it to work because of the transfer and because of the kind of five-star syndrome. So now those guys signing the top classes that are celebrating on signing day, I don’t think that celebration is quite as much as it used to be, at least down in our area. Like I said, James (Franklin) has done the best job of keeping players probably of anybody in the country, but a lot of these others, as you look at the classes the last two years, these five-star guys aren’t paying off. They’re getting them into their program. Let’s be honest, they’re paying a lot of money for them. And when it doesn’t go exactly right, they’re in the portal and going to someone else. So I think there is no exact way to do it, and you’ve got to do it different depending on where you’re at.”
— Lane Kiffin, at the Peach Bowl Joint Head Coach Press Conference
Kiffin gave me one of, if not the best response of the press conference. But there is a lot to unpack.
The respect Kiffin has for both the Alabama and Georgia programs is always high, while he did deflect by referencing past results, Ole Miss will benefit, like Penn State, with the expanded playoff.
Ole Miss also has to contend with new SEC teams in Texas and Oklahoma, both of which were in the mix in the Top 12 this year, and with Texas in the College Football Playoff, a program that looks to be ahead of Ole Miss at this moment in time.
In defense of the Rebels, Ole Miss is right now a better program than Oklahoma. I still feel Brent Venables is still building Oklahoma right now and that will carry over into SEC play.
In the new “Power 4,” I doubt the ACC or Big XII will send more than two schools to the playoff and I feel the Big Ten and SEC will send up to four teams a year on an annual basis.
Ole Miss is a legitimate Top 4 program in the SEC right now even if you include Texas and Oklahoma. So even if they’re not able to topple Alabama or Georgia, they’ll still be in the mix for the postseason.
Kiffin went on to give a real detailed answer about roster building.
How Kiffin views Ole Miss is right now, the transfer portal is used heavily because the gap between them and the top of the SEC in traditional recruiting is steep. Most programs would be happy with a Top 20 recruiting class nationally and feel good about it, but when you are in the SEC, Ole Miss is still only ranked No. 10 out of 16 schools.
With Kiffin trying to build a championship culture at The Grove, the portal is the only way to close the gap. Kiffin arguably delivered the best transfer portal class in the short history of this process, which was highlighted by the addition of five-star defensive lineman Walter Nolen from Texas A&M.
Overall Ole Miss brought in 12 transfers that included Nolen, and five other four-star transfers in wide receiver Antwane Wells (South Carolina), linebacker Chris Paul Jr. (Arkansas), EDGE rushers Princely Umanmielen (Florida) and Tyler Baron (Tennessee), and cornerback Decamerion Richardson (Mississippi State).
One of the major points Kiffin noted was what happens when things don’t go 100% right with five-star recruits. “Let’s be honest, they’re paying a lot of money for them. And when it doesn’t go exactly right, they’re in the portal and going to someone else.”
The topic most haven’t touched in college football, and I am assuming Kiffin is referring to NIL, the unintended consequences of paying upfront before any level of achievement is starting to rear its ugly face in college football.
What if a five-star defensive lineman needs more time to develop before they are ready to really cash in on NIL opportunities? The return on investment is something these collectives, those in agreement in NIL deals are still figuring out.
When you get into a year-to-year contract with a five-star recruit and they don’t develop or perform right away, the uneasy feelings of renewing or not renewing are leading the athletes to follow the money.
As Kiffin relished in his first major bowl win, he was asked post-game if this was a milestone or a sign of more things to come. Kiffin replied, “Well, I said it out there. I really do believe we’re just getting started. I think that we’re doing something — we’re on our way to something really special.”
The one thing Kiffin was missing was the major win, he now has it. There isn’t unlimited equity on this win, but with the momentum built with their first 11-win season, a New Year’s Six bowl win, and now potentially a Top 5 preseason ranking, “The Portal King” is primed to overcome the obstacles that lay before him. He will have starting quarterback Jaxson Dart returning to Oxford in the 2024 season, and with his growth and leadership, it is hard to imagine Ole Miss not being a contender and Kiffin acquiring a national crown.
Good Morning… 2024👀 pic.twitter.com/osbR1jP1GE
— Jaxson Dart (@JaxsonDart) January 1, 2024
