Two potential “Upset Alert Games” for the Ole Miss Rebels in 2024

OXFORD, Miss. — It’s widely known that the Ole Miss Rebels are going all-in for the 2024 college football season. Coming off their first-ever 11-win season, the Rebels used that momentum to recruit the third-best transfer portal class in the country during the offseason and made significant improvements on both sides of the trenches to compete with the best of the best.

With the playoffs expanding to 12 teams and Ole Miss having a pretty good conference roster, it’s playoffs or bust for the Rebels in 2024. A first-time SEC title game appearance isn’t out of the question either, as the conference no longer has a division. However, Ole Miss won’t make the postseason without surviving a close game or two in the regular season.

247Sports recently listed 10 games for 2024 that have the potential to be an upset, and two Ole Miss matchups made the rankings: Ole Miss vs. South Carolina (No. 7) and Georgia vs. Ole Miss (No. 1).

“Sandwiched between key early-season home games against Kentucky and LSU, the Rebels’ game at Williams-Brice Stadium against South Carolina could be tricky,” writes 247Sports. “The Gamecocks have been a tough team to beat during Shane Beamer’s tenure in Columbia and are coming off their off-schedule that precedes three consecutive matchups against top-25 opponents.”

It’s hard to see the Rebels as potential victims of an upset after the offseason they’ve just come through, but these losses always happen when you least expect them. Ole Miss’ road game against South Carolina could be close, but in my opinion it just depends on how sophomore LaNorris Sellers fares in his first season as quarterback for the Gamecocks.

“The Bulldogs are 11-1 against the Rebels over the past 25 seasons, with the only setback coming in the 2016 season at Oxford,” writes 247Sports. “Ole Miss was loaded with elite talent under Hugh Freeze, but that didn’t pan out, five wins later being stripped away. This time around, Lane Kiffin is looking to complete on paper the best roster the Rebels have assembled in program history after they posted 11 wins last fall and used that momentum through the transfer portal.”

A win against the Georgia Bulldogs in Oxford would be the biggest upset of the season. Not only does this game have a lot at stake for both teams, it could also be a preview of the SEC Championship or a playoff game. To make things even more interesting, both Ole Miss and Georgia could go into this game undefeated – assuming the Rebels beat South Carolina.