Trinidad Chambliss didn’t need long to make Ole Miss look like it had found something special.
Thrown into the spotlight after Austin Simmons went down with an ankle injury in the Rebels’ second game of the 2025 season, the former D-II national champion delivered immediately. By the time the year was over, Chambliss had helped push Ole Miss to a program-record 13 wins and left the Rebels one victory short of reaching the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Lane Kiffin has often been part of the conversation around Chambliss’s rise, but not every coach in the SEC sees it that way. One anonymous league coach told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg that Kiffin may be getting more praise than he deserves for the quarterback’s breakout.
“He’s a dude. Lane probably gets too much credit for Trinidad,” the unnamed coach told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.
Kiffin is now at LSU, where Sam Leavitt is expected to be the presumptive QB1. Back at Ole Miss, Chambliss is the center of everything after winning a court battle to return to Oxford for one more season under Pete Golding. He enters the year as one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy, and he’ll also be chasing something even bigger: the first national championship in Ole Miss history.
The Rebels’ path opens on Sept. 6 against Louisville in Nashville at the Music City Kickoff. From there, they’ll host Charlotte on Sept. 12 before the matchup everyone has circled, a 7:30 p.m.
ET kickoff against Kiffin and LSU on Sept. 19.
Chambliss backed up the hype in 2025, finishing with 3,937 passing yards, the third-highest total in FBS. He threw 22 touchdown passes against just three interceptions and added 527 rushing yards and eight more scores on the ground.
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Pete Golding Sees An Early Sign Ole Miss Defense Is Advancing Fast
Pete Golding did not need much time to see why Ole Miss walked into fall camp feeling ahead of schedule on defense. The Rebels carried over continuity from spring and summer workouts, and the return of key pieces like Edwin Joseph and Jordan Renaud gave the staff a familiar base to build on. Golding also pointed to the offseason development structure and the way new offensive coordinator John David Baker helped make the transition smoother, with players already showing a stronger grasp of the playbook than a typical camp opener might suggest.
For a defense trying to take a step forward, that kind of early comfort matters because the real test comes when the tempo rises and mistakes stop being theoretical. Golding believes the groups versatility should help it handle adversity, but fall camp is where that confidence gets stress-tested against pressure, alignment checks and the kind of mental load that can expose whether a unit is truly ahead of the curve. [Read more 🡒]
John David Baker Faces Ole Miss Offense Debate Fans Cant Ignore
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The balancing act is what makes Bakers first turn so interesting. Ole Miss also went into the portal to deepen the receiving room, bringing in Syracuse wideouts Darrell Gill Jr. and Johntay Cook, which gives the offense more options if the staff wants to keep its pace high. The open question is whether Baker leans into the same aggressive approach that made the Rebels so hard to handle or dials it back enough to help the rest of the team breathe a little easier. [Read more 🡒]