Could Mississippi State and Ole Miss repeat the glory of the 2014 football season? ...Middle East

So, here we are, three weeks into the college football season, and some Mississippi football fans are asking themselves: Could we be looking at another 2014 season?

Rick Cleveland

Remember? For nearly two months, Mississippi was the talk of college football. Ole Miss began the season ranked 18th and rose to as high as No. 3. Mississippi State began the season unranked and rose to No. 1. No. 1! The Bulldogs stayed there for five weeks. Five weeks! For two weeks in October, State was ranked No. 1 and Ole Miss No. 3. Poor ol’ Mississippi was the toast of college football. We were living a dream.

If you remember that, you remember this: And then we woke up. LSU burst the Rebels’ bubble, beating Ole Miss 10-7 at Baton Rouge on Oct. 25, after the Rebs led into the fourth quarter. Alabama – isn’t it always Alabama? – knocked off the previously 9-0 Bulldogs 25-20 on Nov. 15. It wasn’t that close.

Those 2014 Bulldogs, led by St. Dak Prescott, would wind up ranked No. 11 in January with a 10-3 record. Those Rebels, after losing to TCU 42-3 in the Peach Bowl, would wind up 9-4 and dropped all the way to 17th in the final Associated Press poll.

Flash forward to today. Ole Miss, 3-0, has risen to No. 4 after vanquishing LSU 32-24 last Saturday night in Oxford. You could make the case the Rebels should be higher. Who else in the country has already defeated two nationally ranked teams? Nobody, that’s who. State, 3-0, has broken into the AP poll at No. 24 after back-to-back road victories over Minnesota and South Carolina.

Who knows how either will finish? Both face so many football landmines, beginning with this Saturday when Ole Miss goes to No. 21 Florida and State hosts No. 19 Missouri. Later, Ole Miss still must play five more ranked teams, including State. After Missouri, State still faces Alabama (currently No. 8), LSU (currently No. 10), somehow unranked Oklahoma, and No. 1 Texas, all in the month of October. It doesn’t seem fair.

So, in answer to the question asked in the first paragraph of this column: No, I don’t believe we are looking at another 2014 season. The schedules are too brutal, too early. I don’t think we’ll see the two Mississippi teams both ranked among the top teams in college football. I don’t think Ole Miss or State will rise to No. 1 –  and certainly not for a five-week run.

But the possibility is there. These are two really good college football teams, with the most important ingredient a team needs to make a championship run. That is, each has a quarterback who can step up when it matters most and win games.

Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (6) passes against LSU during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Last Saturday began with Ole Miss coach Pete Golding speaking the truth on ESPN “College Gameday.” Said Golding, “If you ain’t got a quarterback, you’re screwed. I don’t care what level it is.”

Both State and Ole Miss are far from screwed. Trinidad Chambliss and Kamario Taylor are remarkably talented; both seemed to have that “it” factor all great quarterbacks have.

Quick aside: When I was packing up my backpack in the Vaught-Hemingway press box in the wee hours of Sunday morning, one of the dozen or so national writers covering the game stopped and told me, “You need to book your tickets to New York for the second weekend in December.” 

I asked why, and he said, “You are probably going to have two finalists for the Heisman: Trinidad and Kamario.”

That is a possibility if both can remain healthy through the SEC football’s version of the Bataan Death March. Both showed why on Saturday.

Taylor, just a sophomore, went first: Down 16-0 before nearly 80,000 howling fans, he threw for four touchdowns to rally State to a 41-34 road victory over South Carolina. Then came Chambliss: After LSU rallied from a 24-7 halftime deficit to tie the score, Chambliss drove the Rebels 75 yards for the winning touchdown and scored it himself on a 14-yard scamper. 

Both will need similar performances to win this Saturday. At the Swamp in Gainesville, Ole Miss faces a highly talented, 3-0 Florida team that is a three-point favorite to beat the Rebels. State plays host to a Missouri team that demolished visiting State 49-27 last year. State is a 5.5-point favorite over a Missouri team that is still missing tailback Ahmad Hardy, the Mississippian who ran around, through and over the Bulldogs for 300 yards last season.

For Ole Miss and State to do a 2014 do-over, both would have to win tough games Saturday. And then, it will only get harder.

Hence then, the article about could mississippi state and ole miss repeat the glory of the 2014 football season was published today ( Wednesday 23/09/2026 - 07:38 PM ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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