Ole Miss Football: Lane Kiffin - "Rat Poison" on 2024 way-too-early CFB rankings

With the end of the latest college football season last week, media sites have been dropping their latest way too early 2024 team rankings. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is brushing off the high praise sites have given the Rebels.

With the end of the latest college football season, the 2024 way-too-early rankings have been dropping. Thanks to what Ole Miss and the staff have done since early December, alongside their 2023 season, media sites look to be very high on the Rebels in 2024.

Ole Miss have been extremely active in the transfer portal, especially on defense. Lane Kiffin has added top portal players such as Princely Umanmielen, Chris Paul Jr, Walter Nolen and others to the roster for 2024. These defensive players give the rebels one of the more dangerous-looking defensive fronts in college football, alongside defensive linemen Jared Ivey and JJ Pegues returning.

The defense was good last season. However, defensive coordinator Pete Golding, alongside new co-defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, have the chance to make this defense elite in 2024.

Alongside the defense, Ole Miss returned a lot of talent in the passing game. Quarterback Jaxson Dart is back, alongside pass catchers Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins and Caden Prieskorn. The team may have lost star running back Quinshon Judkins. However, they have a strong-looking running back room that will likely share the load across the season.

With all the above, coming off a career-best year under Lane Kiffin, you can see why the media are high on the Ole Miss Rebels.

The Rebels have been ranked as high as number three by Brad Crawford of 247sports in his 2024 way-too-early rankings. However, Lane Kiffin was quick to react, dropping his famous rat poison emoji combo in reply to the social media post.

The Ole Miss head coach has always reacted to slow down any hype in the media around his teams. It's a good tactic, removing as much pressure from the media as possible. That being said, it does not mean Kiffin and the team do not believe they can be special in 2024. High expectations in the dressing room are very different to what the media write.

Kiffin is aware of what the media can do to the coaches and the players. They will build you up then if you don't meet their expectations, they will tear you down. Labelling rankings "rat poison" is a way of protecting his team as much as possible. Doing this helps the players focus on what they are capable of doing on the football field.

Lane Kiffin is a special head coach, with our fans thankful he is in Oxford coaching the Ole Miss Rebels.