No. 17 Ole Miss: Can the Rebels avoid another late-season swoon?
Dr. Saturday will unveil its preseason Top 25 team-by-team during the next 25 days. This list is based on returning starters, schedule and prospects. However, we all know that once the games begin, things can change very quickly. Still, we thought we’d give our best guess heading into the 2015 season.
No. 17 Ole Miss
2014 record: 9-4, 5-3 in the SEC
Returning starters: 9 offense, 7 defense
2015 Outlook: Ole Miss entered the 2014 season in this vicinity in the preseason polls. Many expected the Rebles to be a contender in the SEC West and those thoughts immediately elevated to from conference contender to national championship contender status after Ole Miss defeated Alabama to move to 5-0.
The win launched the Rebels into the top five, where they stayed for three weeks until a loss against LSU. It got worse from there. Counting the LSU game, Ole Miss lost four of its last six, including a blowout loss to TCU in the Peach Bowl.
Hence why the Rebels are starting this season in the bottom part of the top 20. And while it's not likely, the Rebels could follow a similar path in 2015.
Alabaama is the team's first conference opponent – and it's a trip to Tuscaloosa on September 19. Following the Tide are winnable games against Vanderbilt and Florida, plus non-conference games against New Mexico State and Memphis.
At best, Ole Miss is undefeated eight games into the season. More likely, the team is 7-1. But just like last year, the schedule becomes hell over the final five games. And that's where we'll figure out just how good the Rebels are.
The defense should be stout again. Both Robert and Denzel Nkemdiche are back and so are defensive backs Tony Bridges and Trae Elston. But for Ole Miss to be elite, the offense has to make a leap and become much more consistent. In losses to LSU, Arkansas and TCU, the Rebels scored a combined 10 points. The key? Look below.
Player to watch: Chad Kelly, QB
You know Kelly more for his dismissal from Clemson, his off-field antics and his relation to former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly than for anything he's done on the field. 2015 is his chance to change that.
While Kelly is competing with Ryan Buchanan and DeVante Kincade for the right to start at quarterback, we're thinking Kelly is going to be the guy. But no matter who wins the starting job, he'll have plenty of options to work with. The Rebels return the entire offensive line -- a pretty good one, too -- from last year as well as TE Evan Engram and RB Jaylen Walton. WR LaQuon Treadwell is back as well as he recuperates from the vicious broken ankle he suffered against Auburn.
Because of the support, Kelly doesn't have to be a star. He simply has to play relatively mistake-free football. Ole Miss fans knew the vacillations of former QB Bo Wallace all too well. When Wallace was off, he was really off. And Ole Miss usually paid the price with a loss. The Rebels are god enough to survive a rough and tumble SEC West if Kelly is simply average and minimizes his mistakes. Can he do it?
Breakout player: Mike Hilton, DB
The Rebels lost standout S Cody Prewitt after 2014 and Hilton, a 5-9 senior, is being counted on to fill Prewitt's role.
Prewitt, an all-SEC safety, had 64 tackles and three interceptions in 2014 while Hilton actually had more tackles (71) and the same number of interceptions. But look for Ole Miss' Swiss Army knife defensive back to get a lot of attention if he succeeds in Prewitt's role.
Hilton, the team's Chucky Mullins Award winner, will wear No. 38 in 2015 and has played every position in Ole Miss' defensive secondary. That versatility will once again give Ole Miss' coaching staff a lot of options when it comes to schemes.
"He's very valuable to us as a leader," Freeze said of Hilton at SEC media days. "... He's started for us since his first year and has played a lot of different positions and has rotated from week to week. He understands that back end of our defense very well. We're going to move him to start at safety to hopefully help replace Cody Prewitt, and we believe strongly he's going to be a very solid player. But the fact that he can move around and play our husky, our nickel, corner, safety, he's invaluable to us."
Miss one of our Top 25? No. 18 Arizona State, No. 19 Oklahoma, No. 20 Arizona, No. 21 Tennessee, No. 22 Missouri, No. 23 Stanford, No. 24 Boise State, No. 25 Wisconsin.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
