Lane Kiffin has called the transfer portal a “horrible system” and a “really stupid system.”
Now dubbed The Portal King, Kiffin has accepted the reality of the college football landscape and with the invaluable help from The Grove Collective – one of the best in the NIL business – he has built a national title contender in Oxford.
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That was never more evident than Saturday night when Ole Miss whooped Georgia, 28-10, holding the Bulldogs to 59 yards rushing as they scored only three points after the first quarter.
“I told our team all week, they’re (Ole Miss) the most talented team we’ll face,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “They outplayed us. They really should be undefeated.”
Other than two three-point losses to Kentucky and LSU – games in which both opponents scored late touchdowns – the Rebels would be undefeated.
Ole Miss is definitely good enough to not only make the College Football Playoff but win everything.
And transfers lead the way almost across the board.
Star quarterback Jaxson Dart is a transfer from USC. Leading rusher Henry Parrish came to Ole Miss from Miami. Leading receiver Tre Harris – who Kiffin has called the best player at his position in the country – is a transfer from Louisiana Tech. Louisville transfer receiver Jordan Watkins leads the team with seven touchdowns.
Leading tackler Chris Paul Jr. came from Arkansas. Second-leading tackler TJ Dottery is a Clemson transfer. Florida transfer edge rusher Princely Umanmielen is second on the team with 9.5 sacks.
Former five-star Walter Nolen, the plug in the middle, has four sacks and came to Ole Miss from Texas A&M. Cornerback Trey Amos leads the team with three interceptions and he’s an Alabama transfer.
This was all by design.
Kiffin might have despised the transfer portal but instead of resisting its reality, he embraced it. Ranked with the second-best transfer portal class last recruiting cycle behind only Colorado, which completely revamped its roster with portal players, Kiffin set out to augment his roster.
Last season, Georgia beat Ole Miss, 52-17. Saturday night, the Rebels rolled in convincing fashion.
“A lot of good things have happened but there hasn’t been a signature game like this,” a clearly excited Kiffin said in his post-game news conference.
“We made a decision to go to the portal, got some guys to come back and not go to the draft and a lot of it was for this game. A number of those guys said it this week, it was for this game, to play Georgia.”
The number floated around to compile this Ole Miss roster has been between $10-12 million.
Former Under Armour exec Walker Jones, who now runs The Grove Collective, has said he decided that the Rebels will no longer be a middling SEC team, that the goal is to now compete for championships.
Last year, the Rebels were 11-2 and won the Peach Bowl, the most wins in program history. Topping that win total this season, including a 12-team playoff, seems like a very real possibility.
Not counting the COVID season of 2020 – Kiffin’s first in Oxford – he’s 37-12 with the Rebels and has really heated up the last two years.
There have also been major high school recruiting successes as well.
Five-star linebacker Suntarine Perkins is from Raleigh, Miss., and Ole Miss staved off Alabama late in the recruiting process to keep him. Perkins leads the team with 10 sacks.
When Dart went down with an injury early against Georgia, Kiffin trusted four-star lefty QB Austin Simmons to fire it all over the yard and he looks like a future star in Kiffin’s offense. He had been committed to Florida before the Rebels flipped him. Former four-star Cayden Lee is second on the team with 40 catches for 696 yards.
Counting junior college players, Ole Miss has 54 transfers on its roster. Not counting JUCOs, there are 44.
This was not by desperation but by design.
And Kiffin has this program right where he wants it – smacking Georgia over the weekend and riding high.
