2025 preseason coaches' poll places Ole Miss squarely in the CFP race

Fall camp is fully underway in Oxford and across the country, as the college football season rapidly approaches. The Rebels are entering Week 2 of camp, and full pads are on for the first time at the Manning Center.

We are also hitting that time of the summer when the first top 25 polls are going to start rolling in. The first of those came out yesterday, with the release of the coaches' poll. Now, preseason polls and polls in general should always be taken with a grain of salt. Also, coaches across the country are not watching every game or know every team, and most don't even fill it out themselves. However, the first coaches' poll can be a nice snapshot into what college coaches think about the rosters of the top teams.

In the first edition of the coaches, Ole Miss came in near the middle of the pack, at 15.

This placement seems higher than what the buzz has been surrounding this Ole Miss team throughout the offseason. It seemed that the national consensus was that this Rebel roster would take a fairly significant step back from where they have been. However, a 15th ranking put them squarely in the playoff hunt.

A lot of the hype for this football team rests in the hands of an unproven, but uber-talented commodity, in third-year QB Austin Simmons. Simmons spent the previous two seasons as Jaxson Dart's understudy, and now he is ready to step into the spotlight as the starting QB for the Rebels. Additionally, the staff completely reworked the running back position, completely restocked at wide receiver, and replenished what was a historically great defensive line.

The Rebels have a ton of talent on this roster, but also have a ton of incredibly raw talent. It will be hard to tell what they really are and what they can be this season until they hit the field at the end of this month against Georgia State.