"They will fall off" - Josh Pate raises major concerns for Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss heading into the 2025 CFB season

Ole Miss boasted one of the best defenses in college football last season. The unit ranked among the best in almost all defensive metrics, making them a force in the Southeastern Conference. However, the Rebels were unable to make the College Football Playoff.

Entering the 2025 season, Josh Pate does not believe the Lane Kiffin-led program can maintain the same level of defensive performance. On Thursday's episode of his “College Football Show,” the analyst discussed the potential of having a defense not as good as the previous season.

“The biggest question about this team to me is defensive regression,” Pate said (Timestamp: 3:48). “It's going to happen. Last year, they were second defensively in points per game allowed. They were second defensively in rush yards allowed per game. They were first in the country in sacks.

“They will fall off. I'm just questioning how much they're going to fall off. Because if Golding still has that team playing like a top 15 defense, they could win the league if Austin Simmons is what I think he's going to be.”

While Pete Golding remains the defensive coordinator at Ole Miss, he lost some key performers on the defense from 2024 to the NFL draft. These include Walter Nolen, Trey Amos, Princely Umanmielen, Chris Paul Jr. and JJ Pegues. It's to be seen how the Rebels handle that next season.

Josh Pate discusses the volatility of the Ole Miss approach

Ole Miss has actively recruited from the transfer portal under Lane Kiffin. This has often led to a level of roster turnover in the team over the years. Josh Pate believes the volatile approach makes it difficult for the program to sustain its level of performance on the defense.

“That's really difficult to do,” Pate said. “Really, really difficult to do, especially year to year, given the volatility of the approach they use, just bringing in portal guys.

“I don't think this portal class they just brought in has the pop necessarily that the previous one did. So you're pairing all of that with a new quarterback. There's just a lot that has to fall into place. They've still got a workable schedule, but a lot of that stuff's got to fall into place.”

Ole Miss will play on the same conference schedule as last season. However, the game venues will be flipped this time. In their non-league schedule, the Rebels will face Georgia State, Tulane, Washington State and The Citadel. Without a doubt, making the playoffs this time comes as the major goal.