“Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss transfer portal success, LSU failure are key takeaways from Week 11”

College football continued as expected in Week 11. Things got weird.

A powerhouse entered Bloomington in a duel between them Indiana and the defending champions Michigan Wolverines. Of course, the Hoosiers won and went 10-0.

Georgia? The bully of the SEC and winners of 52 straight games against unnamed teams Alabama? It has lost as portal king – all hail Lane Kiffin – won a decisive victory at Oxford.

Remember when Death Valley felt like a house of horrors for the visiting team? Alabama fans sang goodbye to the Tigers and celebrated a stunning victory.

Add a top 10 team that goes down (Miami), A Colorado statement and a historically poor performance by State of Floridaand the week that was in college football delivered.

Week 11 is over and you know how it works: Let’s go through college football overtime, highlighting everything you need to know from the week in college football.

ONE BIG CONCLUSION: This is what OLE MISS WAS BUILT FOR

Ole Miss entered the 2024 season with an audacious goal: a place in the College Football Playoff. It became the star of the program with the announcement of the 12-team playoffs in 2022.

The Rebels, who hadn’t won a conference championship since 1963, no longer wanted to be a pretty story or a 10-win surprise team. They wanted to fight.

“The days of Ole Miss playing second fiddle and being happy with the middle of the SEC are over,” Grove Collective executive director said Walker Jones told 247Sport this offseason. “That’s not why I’m there. That’s not why I’m a coach.” (Lane) Kiffin is in, (basketball coach) Chris Beard or (sports director) Keith Carter.

“That is no longer our goal. There are no moral victories.”

Moral victories are not in sight for the Rebels on Saturday in Oxford, as their eight-figure roster helped beat No. 3 Georgia (28-10) to a program-defining victory. The no. 16 Rebels (8-2) needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Now they thrive with just Florida And Mississippi State still on schedule.

Ole Miss’s outlook in 2024 was good as they were able to push all their chips to the middle of the table. The Rebels had an All-America candidate at quarterback Jaxson Dart. Thirteen starters were around him again. The schedule, without teams like TexasAlabama and Tennesseeextremely well constructed.

But Ole Miss had to take a step toward scrimmage. It’s been the obvious difference between the Rebels and the likes of Georgia in recent seasons.

Georgia beat Ole Miss, then a top-10 team, 52-17 last year. It pressured the Rebels with 300 yards rushing (8.5 yards per carry) and 19 pressures on defense.

Afterward, Kiffin noted the difference in the programs: “We have to recruit at a higher level. … We signed a five-star player. They signed 24. They’ll show up at some point.”

The gap between Ole Miss and Georgia on paper has narrowed. The Rebels made it into the top 20 2024 Team Talent Composite while UGA remained second. But it really came down to where Ole Miss added their talent.

SEC success starts with elite line play. On Saturday, the Rebels had the ball on both sides.

A wobbly O-line for much of the year that brought in three transfers allowed just one sack and protected a hampered Dart. On the other side of the ball, Ole Miss’ D-line set the tone.

All four starters on the Rebels’ defensive line are transfers, including Walter Nolen (Texas A&M) And Princely Umanmielen (Florida), a couple Top 20 transfers in 2024 which came with huge price tags. They proved on Saturday that they are worth it. You – along with other starters (and former transfers) Jared Ivey And JJ Pegues – helped produce five sacks, nine tackles for loss and four forced fumbles while limiting UGA to 1.8 yards per carry. Umanmielen (five tackles, two sacks, one forced fumble) finished the game with a strip sack Carson Beck.

Each member of this quartet is a potential high-round draft pick. But it’s not just the appetizers. They have impressive depth, including the five-star 2023 recruit Suntarine Perkinswho had three quarterback hurries and a huge sack in the fourth quarter.

It’s a level of talent and depth on defense that Ole Miss hasn’t had in previous seasons. It is now available in abundance and makes all the difference. Georgia began the week with the fourth-lowest pressure rate allowed in the country. Ole Miss, which ranks first in pressure percentage, dominated this matchup of the Titans on paper.

Ole Miss wanted a greater destiny than being an occasional opponent for the Georgias of the SEC. The Rebels saw returns on their NIL and Portal investment on Saturday. It is the ultimate proof of concept.

Transcript

A. COLORADO

You know what makes Colorado dangerous. It is Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and an explosive passing attack. Sanders showed that on Saturday with a 41-27 win Texas Techthrew for 291 yards and three scores.

But I would argue that the reason Colorado, now a legitimate top-25 team at 7-2, is significantly better in 2024 has a lot more to do with the players who never make the headlines. Especially Colorado’s defensive front.

Colorado could have been eliminated from this game. In Lubbock it was down 13-0. However, thanks to the defense’s ability to build pressure, they managed to get back into the game. The Buffaloes finished the game with seven sacks and 10 tackles for a loss while also containing the superstar running back Tahj Brooks to a hard-fought 4.4 yards per carry on 31 attempts.

The Buffaloes’ front line controlled the game. Here’s how Texas Tech’s final four drives ended this evening:

– Take off the bag

– Turnover on downs because Colorado stopped the Red Raiders on the goal line

-Touchdown

– Pull out the sack for a touchdown

Colorado ranked just 107th nationally in pressure rate last year. This season thanks to transfers like BJ Green And Arden Walkerthe Buffaloes are ranked 52nd and will move up even further after this week. Add in a much-improved offensive line that has allowed an average of just four pressures per game over the past three weeks, and it’s easy to see why Colorado has risen from 4-8 to a Big 12 contender.