COLUMN: Strong Start To Season Could Set Up Strong Finish For Kiffin's Rebels
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OXFORD, Miss. -- It wasn't always pretty, but the Ole Miss Rebels now sit at 7-0 on the season after knocking off the Auburn Tigers at home on Saturday.
Ole Miss jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first half before the Tigers rallied to make it a one-score game at times throughout the afternoon, but after the back-and-forth affair and a weather delay, the Rebels brought home the 48-34 win.
This has seemingly become the norm under Lane Kiffin. There are times when the Rebels are clicking on all cylinders, but even when they aren't for a full 60 minutes, they manage to come away with the win. To me, that speaks to the quick turnaround Kiffin has mastered since his arrival in Oxford.
Winning even when you don't play perfectly is a credit to a winning culture, and that has been the case at Ole Miss for the last calendar year.
On Saturday, Kiffin did accomplish a first, however: he knocked off Auburn for the first time since arriving in Oxford, possibly putting yet another (the final?) nail in the coffin of Bryan Harsin's tenure on The Plains. Time will tell if Harsin is gone from Auburn at the end of the season (or earlier), but with five games left to play on the schedule, it would be foolish to count the Rebels out of any of them.
That's not to say that I expect Ole Miss to finish the year undefeated, but if you think about it, LSU, Texas A&M and Arkansas appear to be very winnable games for Kiffin's team, and Alabama and Mississippi State both come to Oxford.
For a team that doesn't often lay dud games, that appears to provide potential for a successful finish to the campaign.
Coming into the season, most of us (self-included) would have likely put Ole Miss' win total between seven or nine. In fact, in my official game-by-game predictions for the season, I had the Rebels finishing at 9-3.
That finish is certainly on the table, but they've already hit the seven-win mark, and that can't help but create a little of buzz about the potential of this team. For a squad that had a lot of transfers and question marks entering the season, you couldn't have asked for a better start.
You can follow John Macon on Twitter at @JMakeGillespie.
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