Previews and Predictions: No. 6 Ole Miss Hosts Furman in Season Opener

OXFORD, Miss. — We are hours away from the kick-off of one of the most anticipated football seasons in Ole Miss history. It’s finally time for Rebels to gather in the Grove — and then head over to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the long-awaited kickoff to 2024!

For the season opener, Ole Miss hosts the Furman Paladins of Greenville, South Carolina. The Paladins are an FCS program that has seen some success recently, finishing last year with a 10-3 record. Ole Miss just capped off an 11-2 season that ended with a Peach Bowl victory over Penn State.

The Rebel Walk has put together a group of panelists who will weekly share their predictions for the upcoming week. Our panel brings a variety of backgrounds and perspectives that showcase many different point of views.

With that being said let’s take a look at some of the game details, introduce our panelists, and get to the panelists’ predictions.

Game Details

• • Kickoff: Saturday, Aug. 31st at 6:00 PM CT
  • TV: SECN+
  • Radio:
    • OleMissSports.com
    • Memphis: WHBQ-AM 560
    • Oxford: WOXF-FM 105.1
    • Jackson: WFMN-FM 97.3
• Betting Lines (as of Friday)
  • Ole Miss: -42
  • O/U: 60.5

Meet Our Panel

Grayson Weir –  BroBible

An Ole Miss alum, Grayson has quite the resume in sports media dating back to 2017. Starting as an editor for The Daily Mississippian, he has found himself working in sports for companies such as Fox Sports, SB Nation, OutKick, and BroBible. He also has had roles for On3.com as a podcast host, contract roles at both DKNation and Sportsbook Review. Currently, Grayson is a Senior Editor at BroBible where he’s been since September of last year.

Follow him on X: @GsonJW

Tyler Komis – 247 Sports

Currently, Tyler is a staff writer for Inside The Rebels of CBS 247 Sports. He has been around the Ole Miss beat since 2019 where he started as a reporter for WUMS-FM 92.1. He also has held positions with several other companies associated with the Ole Miss beat including, The Rebel Walk, HottyToddy.com, and News Watch Ole Miss. Tyler brings five years of experience to the panel and a fresh perspective.

Follow him on X: @TylerKomis

Kam Wicker – The Rebel Walk

Having joined The Rebel Walk in 2021, Kam has been a valuable asset to the team — a four-year starter, if you will. With a background in football, Kam brings a wealth of knowledge to the panel seeing the game in a different light. Since joining The Rebel Walk, Kam has had a large footprint covering Football, Basketball and Baseball. He is currently a senior at Ole Miss, set to graduate in the spring.

Follow him on X: @Kam_Wicker

Adam Brown – The Rebel Walk

Joining The Rebel Walk as its Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years, Adam is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Prior to bringing his expertise to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com, covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community for more than a decade.

Follow him on X: @AdamBrownSE_RW 

Caleb Salers – SuperTalk Mississippi

For the past two-and-a-half years, Caleb has been a multimedia journalist with SuperTalk Mississippi. He specializes in delivering content on a variety of subjects pertaining to the state of Mississippi. His work can be found in the form of articles, radio, and video. He’s collaborated with several projects with The Rebel Walk in the past.

Follow him on X: @CalebSalersST

Zach Moreth – The Rebel Walk

In 2023, Zach joined The Rebel Walk team. In his short time with us, he’s made a huge impact covering football, basketball and baseball. From writing in-depth articles, to providing quality after-game reports and in-depth player interviews, he’s been integral in our coverage. He and Kam co-host their podcast called ‘The Rebel Talk.’ Currently, Zach is a sophomore at Ole Miss and is studying Sports Administration.

Follow him on X: @ZachMoreth

Panel Predictions

Compared to year’s past, our predictions will look just a little bit different this season, while providing all the same content as before.

For 2024, we are adding a scoring system to the predictions. For all the readers out there, we encourage you to join along at home, and let us know how your scoring is going and compete alongside with us.

Here are the rules:

Each panel member can earn a total of six points per week.

• One point will be awarded for correctly picking the winning team outright.
• Two points will be awarded if the predicted score is within 7.5 points total. There is a caveat to this. For example, if a panel member says that a team wins the game 21-0 and that team loses 0-21, the total score is technically within 7.5 points. However, points will only be awarded if the score is close to the prediction (i.e. – a score of 24-3 has a total of 27 and is within 7.5 points of 21).
• Lastly, a panel member will be awarded three points if his prediction is correct.

With that being said let’s get to the predictions for the Furman game.

Grayson Weir – BroBible

Score: Ole Miss 49 — Furman 10

Prediction: Ole Miss at least 4.0 total sacks

The Paladins return a lot of talent on both sides of the ball from a team that went 10-3 last year. Leading tackler Evan DiMaggio is going to make stops. All-Southern Conference wide receiver Joshua Harris is going to get open. There will be some positive moments for the visitors. With that being said, the talent gap between these two teams is too much to overcome. Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. are going to keep the offense fairly vanilla, but Jaxson Dart will have a big day anyway. The defense is going to feast in the backfield and finish with no less than four sacks, which will keep Furman out of the end zone even if it gets moving early in drives.

Tyler Komis – Inside the Rebels

Score: Ole Miss 62 – Furman 9

Prediction: Caden Prieskorn anytime TD

Week 1 is finally here and so are the Paladins. I have Ole Miss comfortably winning their first game of the new year. Furman doesn’t match up with Ole Miss on the line of scrimmage or down the field for that matter. I expect the Rebels’ offense to exploit Furman’s inexperienced secondary all four quarters. Whether it’s Jaxson Dart, Walker Howard or Austin Simmons throwing to whatever receivers Ole Miss has out there, it doesn’t matter. With that being said, my prediction of the week is that Caden Prieskorn scores the first touchdown of the season.

Kam Wicker  – The Rebel Walk

Score: Ole Miss 55, Furman 7

Prediction: Sophomore wide receiver Cayden Lee goes over 10o yards receiving

The new-look Landshark defense should be terrorizing in week one, right away. I expect a big day from the young corps of the team as the game goes on and they get their chances. A big day for the Rebel pass game should get the job done.

Zach Moreth – The Rebel Walk

Score: Ole Miss 56 – Furman 7

Prediction: Walter Nolen tallies over 1.5 sacks

Ole Miss will beat Furman 56-7 with Jaxson Dart and Tre Harris taking full command early on in the Vaught. The Rebel defensive line is going to demolish the Furman offensive line and prove that they are one of the best in the nation.

Adam Brown – The Rebel Walk

Score: Ole Miss 45 – Furman 7

Prediction: Jaxson Dart over 135 passing yards and 2 total passing touchdowns

TJ Oxley – The Rebel Walk

Score: Ole Miss 52 – Furman 7

Prediction: Ole Miss over four rushing TDs

Starting out the season Ole Miss shows off that new and improved offensive line. Lane Kiffin takes a page out of his former mentor Nick Saban’s playbook and really wears down the Furman defense with the run. Ole Miss is in control of this one steadily as the running game dictates. Look forward the trio of Ulysses Bentley IV, Henry Parrish and Rashad Amos to all get meaningful carries in this one. With that being said the Ole Miss offense totals more than four rushing touchdowns including those mentioned above and Jaxson Dart.

Caleb Salers – Supertalk Mississippi

Score: Ole Miss 56 – Furman 10

Prediction: TJ Dottery leads Ole Miss in total tackles

The Rebels take control early and coast their way through the rest of the ballgame against the Paladins. A fully healthy Caden Prieskorn will pick up where he left off with a pair of touchdowns in the home opener. On the defensive side, watch for TJ Dottery to lead the team in tackles as he shows his dynamic abilities.

TJ Oxley

TJ Oxley is the Vice President of Operations and the Director of Community Relations for The Rebel Walk. He is also the Director of Basketball Content and Senior Basketball Writer. He has over five years of experience providing in-depth analysis of college basketball through multiple platforms. A former MBA graduate of Ole Miss, TJ started with The Rebel Walk in 2019.