COLUMN: Is This The Best Year in Ole Miss Sports History?
After the Ole Miss Rebels baseball team secured its first national title in program history on Sunday, it is fair for Rebel fans to ponder this question:
Is this the best year in Ole Miss sports history?
Some fans might say that winning the baseball national championship alone makes this the best year in the history of Ole Miss sports. After 22 years of waiting, Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco finally got his team to the College World Series Finals, and he did not leave empty-handed. The Rebels' miraculous postseason run is the headliner for the best year in Ole Miss sports.
Other athletic programs at Ole Miss have had phenomenal 2021-22 seasons too.
The Ole Miss football team won 10 regular-season games for the first time in program history, earning a trip to the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Six players from that Ole Miss team were drafted back in April in the 2022 NFL Draft, including former quarterback Matt Corral and former defensive lineman Sam Williams. Corral was a Heisman Trophy candidate throughout the 2021 regular season, while Williams set the single-season sack record at Ole Miss with 12.5.
Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin also earned himself a new nickname after he brought in the second-highest rated transfer portal class in 2022: The Portal King.
Kiffin reloaded the Rebels for the 2022 college football season and has Ole Miss prepared for similar success in the fall.
The Ole Miss Men's basketball team did not contribute to the best year in Ole Miss sports, but the Ole Miss Women's basketball team sure did.
Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin led the Rebels to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007 this season, and despite a first-round exit, reaching the big dance was the main goal for Coach Yo and company in 2022-23. Former Rebel center Shakira Austin was drafted third overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics after helping lead her team to March Madness.
It is hard to remember the last time this many programs in Ole Miss Athletics were competing at such a high level. Rebel fans could very well be witnessing the Golden Age of Ole Miss sports, at least the first in a long, long time.
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