Alabama Football: Bold predictions for each of Tide’s 2020 opponents

Bold predictions for Alabama football’s opponents: Ole Miss Rebels

Lane Kiffin will be the most successful new coach in the SEC in his first season.

This is quite the hot take, but I truly believe it. Alabama football has personally seen what Lane Kiffin can do in a short amount of time. In fact, they’ve been on both sides of the equation. Tennessee almost upset Alabama in their perfect season in 2009 thanks to Kiffin, and Kiffin also made Blake Sims look like an NFL prospect with little prep time.

I don’t believe that Kiffin will be more successful in the SEC than Mike Leach in the long run. However, I think Kiffin is better equipped to win in his first season. He has a system of success that bodes well for Ole Miss. He comes in with a lot of hype, flips the script for a few players, and uses early success to recruit well. I think that Kiffin will turn John Rhys Plumlee into one a quality dual threat option.

The schedule also turned out to be favorable for the Rebels. South Carolina and Vanderbilt were added, which looks like it could easily be two wins for Lane Kiffin. They also get to play Kentucky, so they could easily go 3-1 in their SEC East games.

Lane Kiffin hopes that he can topple Nick Saban and Alabama football at some point. He won’t do so in 2020, but he will at least outperform his rival in the state of Mississippi.