Let's face it, the Ole Miss Rebels' defensive line is yet to hit its stride. More importantly, Coach Lane Kiffin knows it is far from what his defense used to be in 2024, one of the finest and most formidable in the SEC.
Kiffin's squad returning only four starters from the previous season makes it justifiable, but it isn't going to win games. Neither will pessimism or complaints about their visible struggle with stopping the run game.
This is why the Ole Miss head coach is instead focusing on fixing his D-line the best they can, heading into their bye week.
"Pete Golding has done a wonderful job. We’ve come a long way from where we were defensively before he got here," Kiffin said in his weekly teleconference, praising the improvement they made six weeks into the season.
"Last year we played great defense (and were) one of the top rush defenses in the last 10 years of college football. We’ve not played that way this year, and we’ve got a ton of new players," Kiffin continued.
In 2024, the Rebels' defense was ranked No. 1 nationally in rush yards allowed per game (80.5 yards per game) and No. 2 in scoring defense.
So far in the 2025 season, Ole Miss's defense has allowed 163.8 rushing yards per game, putting them far below their previous season's ranking.
"We lost a lot of NFL players and really good players. So, we’ve been up-and-down on defense this year, and we’ve got to keep improving because we’re going to have some really challenging games."
Squaring off against teams like Georgia and Oklahoma in their remaining slate doesn't make it any easier for them.
That is exactly why Kiffin's focus would be working on that in their bye week, since he doesn't have to worry much about his offense other than picking their next starting QB.
He has about 15 days to execute all of this before they dive head first into another round of regular season madness.
Ole Miss faces Washington State next on Oct. 11.