From Tonsillitis to an Extra SEC Year: The Complete Trinidad Chambliss Timeline

Here’s how the quarterback ended up here.

Trinidad Chambliss has rocketed from Division II to the SEC to future sports law textbooks. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The most consequential player of the 2025-26 college football offseason was a backup to start the 2025 season, and in Division II during the 2024 campaign. He’s an SEC institution at this point—but he hails from the decidedly un-Southern city of Grand Rapids, Mich.

These are the contradictions that make up Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss—a potential mid-round NFL draft pick who won in court Thursday the right to play a sixth college football season. Even by modern standards, Chambliss’s road through college football has been bumpy. However, there’s no denying his talent.

As Chambliss gears up for year six, here’s a look back at his career—where he came from, why he sought a sixth year of eligibility, and what he means to college football writ large.

Trinidad Chambliss properly introduced himself to Ole Miss fans. with a 21-for-29 performance against Arkansas in September. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

2021: Getting his feet wet

Chambliss, an All-State football and basketball player at Forest Hills Northern High School in Grand Rapids, Mich., arrives at Ferris State and is redshirted. In the first post-pandemic Division II season, the Bulldogs go 14-0 and win the national title under coach Tony Annese.

2022: The lost season

Chambliss sees no action in his second season with Ferris State, which he will later attribute in court to “respiratory issues” causing “recurrent throat infections, poor sleep quality, daytime fatigue and exercise-related discomfort.” The quarterback would additionally testify that Annese told him before the season he planned to medically redshirt him. The Bulldogs again win the national title, going 14-1 with only a loss to rival Grand Valley State.

2023: First action

Finally, Chambliss makes it on to the field for Ferris State. He sees sustained action in eight games in his third collegiate season, completing 21 of 33 passes for 354 yards, five touchdowns and an interception. The Bulldogs regress to 8-3, losing to the rival GVSU Lakers in the first round of the Division II playoffs.

Trinidad Chambliss tasted national championship glory for the second time in 2024. | C. Morgan Engel/Contributor

2024: Surgery—and then a breakthrough

In January of this year, Chambliss undergoes a tonsillectomy, which he will say in court ended “a roller coaster of being sick and then being better,” and restored him to full health. It shows on the field. Chambliss starts every game for Ferris State’s third national title team in four years, throwing 31 touchdown passes against just seven interceptions.

2025: Heading south

On April 14, Chambliss announces he’ll transfer to play for the Rebels, who start the season ranked No. 21 with quarterback Austin Simmons running the show. Simmons injures his ankle against Kentucky on Sept. 6, pressing Chambliss into duty. The quarterback proceeds to dazzle the college football world, throwing for 22 touchdowns against just three interceptions with eight rushing scores and leading the SEC in passing. Finishing eighth in the Heisman voting, Chambliss throws a coming-out party on the national stage by torching Georgia for 362 yards through the air in a classic Sugar Bowl.

No Ole Miss fan will ever forget Trinidad Chambliss’s epic Sugar Bowl performance against Georgia. | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

2026: One last job?

After Ole Miss loses to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, Chambliss—now a recipient of NFL buzz—loses his initial attempt at receiving a medical waiver to play a sixth season. In response, he files a lawsuit in state court in an attempt to receive an injunction to play in 2026. Chambliss’s legal team argues that the NCAA is failing to abide by its own rules, and wins on friendly territory in Pittsboro, Miss.—a 45-minute drive southeast of Oxford. Depending on the result of a potential NCAA appeal, he immediately becomes a Heisman contender in the season to come.

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