To Be the Best You’ve Got to Beat the Best: Ole Miss Faces SEC Gauntlet as Five Heisman Hopeful QBs Await the Rebels
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss isn’t just chasing wins this fall — the Rebels are staring down one of the most daunting quarterback gauntlets in college football history. After rallying for a gritty 30-23 victory over Kentucky, Lane Kiffin’s squad now turns its attention to a stretch of the schedule that reads like a Heisman watch list.
The Rebels’ SEC slate features matchups against five of the nation’s top 15 Heisman contenders — including Oklahoma’s John Mateer, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, Georgia’s Gunner Stockton, and Florida’s DJ Lagway. Add in a dangerous Arkansas quarterback this weekend, plus Tulane’s proven winner Jake Retzlaff waiting in the wings, and suddenly the narrative that Ole Miss has an “easy schedule” couldn’t be further from reality.
For Pete Golding’s defense, the message is simple: to be the best, you have to beat the best. And in 2025, that means slowing down one elite signal-caller after another.
Movement on the Heisman Board
To say the fluidity of college football is utterly chaotic after only three Saturdays is an understatement. Heisman moments continue to pop up out of nowhere, while others dissipate into oblivion. A player leading the oddsmakers board for any longer than a week has proven to be an extremely difficult task. Just ask SEC quarterbacks Arch Manning and Nussmeier. Heisman fame is fleeting this time of year.
Now as we enter Week 3, yet another SEC quarterback has assumed the Board’s leadership role — at a school that’s certainly had its share recently of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks — Oklahoma.
That quarterback would be John Mateer, the highly-sought transfer from Washington State. To make the deal even sweeter, Mateer arrived in Norman with his very own offensive coordinator riding shotgun.
Most of the country laid eyes on Mateer for the first time in the first-ever matchup between OU and Michigan this past Saturday. Mateer showed to be extremely talented, as dual-threat of a QB as anyone in the game. He’s a running back with an arm, proving to be quite a dangerous combination for opposing defenses.
As the Ole Miss Rebels revel in one of the better comebacks thus far this season — CFB’s only comeback win from a ten-point deficit in a shutout situation — we begin looking forward.
Rebels to face top Heisman candidates
Has any team in the history of college football had on its conference schedule three of the top four Heisman candidates?
This is exactly what Ole Miss has on its remaining schedule. Heisman favorites Mateer and Nussmeier, plus South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers (ranked 4th), are those candidates.
Former Georgia QB Carson Beck, now at Miami, is currently the third choice. If he’d remained a Bulldog, the Rebs would potentially be staring down all four of these outstanding quarterbacks at some point this season.
But, WAIT! Georgia restocked with another Heisman candidate in Gunner Stockton, who’s coming in at No. 8, and next, rounding out the Top 15 is Florida’s DJ Lagway. We KNOW that dude can play!
The SEC schedule pits the Rebels against ALL FIVE of these Heisman contenders in succession, all sandwiched between the Arkansas game and the Egg Bowl, one after the other.
That’s a gauntlet of top-ranked quarterbacks, leading Vegas Top 20 teams, that Pete Golding and Company will be preparing for week after week after week.
And rest assured, the Heisman hopefuls won’t be the only quarterbacks that people will be talking about when the teams meet.
No one can say with any amount of certainty that the lefty in Oxford isn’t ready for a breakout season himself. He just needs to get his arm warmed up in a more productive fashion and come out blazing.
The level of quarterbacking in store for Ole Miss football fans is simply mind-boggling.
Arkansas’ Taylen Green leads QBR Board
BUT, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at the current ESPN Total QBR Board. Well, lo and behold, the ARKANSAS quarterback leads all the SEC quarterbacks with a very impressive 91.1 QBR.
Taylen Green has a higher score than any of the “big-time” quarterbacks previously mentioned. He can DEFINITELY burn you, and having played for Boise State, he knows a little something about winning, too.
The Rebels and Hogs are numbers two and three in the country in explosive plays (20+). Last year’s game fell just a touchdown short of hitting 100 points, with the Rebels closing it out with a 32-point scoring margin. Regardless, Arkansas put more points on the board against Ole Miss than any other 2024 opponent did.
Squeezed in after Arkansas is the Tulane Green Wave, the current favorite to win the American Conference. Their new QB, seasoned junior Jake Retzlaff just in from BYU, is off to a fast start, as well. He wins football games. Tulane takes on Duke this Saturday after handling the BIG’s Northwestern team quite easily in its Power 4 season opener.
Final thoughts
So, where are the Strength of Schedule experts now — the ones who were saying Ole Miss has one of the easiest schedules in the SEC? I’m not seeing it, at least not from a defensive standpoint.
There are just too many ringers in this year’s lineup to take ANY team lightly. For the upcoming challenges, it’s a call for all hands on deck. Stop them, you must.
David Walker
David Walker was named Louisiana’s High School Player of the Year at just 16 years old and, at 17, became college football’s first quarterback to earn Freshman of the Year honors. He remains the NCAA’s youngest-ever starting quarterback, a distinction that has stood for decades.
Transitioning from a wide-open high school offense to Emory Bellard’s renowned wishbone triple option, Walker excelled as a dual-threat quarterback. He graduated as Texas A&M’s all-time winningest quarterback and served as a two-time team captain, helping to transform a program that had endured 15 losing seasons in the previous 16 years.
After his playing career, Walker coached and taught algebra at six Texas high schools before moving into private business. In 2011, he published his memoir, “I’ll Tell You When You’re Good,” a title inspired by the coaching philosophy of Shannon Suarez, the Sulphur High and Louisiana High School Hall of Fame coach who was a significant influence on Walker’s life and career.
Walker’s compelling storytelling in his autobiography reflects the breadth of his experiences in high school and college football, and it is an undeniable fact that he saw more action than any athlete in the history of the NCAA. Since 2013, he has contributed to The Rebel Walk, sharing his insights and expertise with readers.
