Ole Miss brings its own quarterback story. Trinidad Chambliss finished 8th in Heisman voting last season and had to fight through a legal battle just to be on the field in 2026 — the NCAA denied his eligibility waiver, a judge granted an injunction anyway, and the NCAA's appeal was denied. He's QB1 for a program that just made a College Football Playoff run and then lost its head coach in the middle of it.
That coaching change is the wild card. Lane Kiffin bolted for LSU last November, and Pete Golding — Ole Miss's former defensive coordinator — takes over as a first-time head coach for a program with real CFP aspirations. Texas, meanwhile, is dealing with its own version of unfinished business after missing the Playoff in 2025 despite a roster loaded with talent, prompting a defensive coordinator change that brought in Will Muschamp.
Both rosters got facelifts through the portal. Texas added receiver Cam Coleman from Auburn and running backs Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers to pair with Manning, while Ole Miss's No. 5-ranked national portal class restocked around returning running back Kewan Lacy, a legit non-QB Heisman name in his own right. Sarkisian also stirred things up with a jab at Ole Miss academics that Golding's administration answered publicly, so there's some actual bulletin-board material sitting on top of the talent gap.
Texas opens as the more proven team on paper — preseason No. 2 nationally against Ole Miss at No. 8 — but neither program is walking in clean. Texas is still figuring out its offensive line after a Sarkisian-era-low scoring output last season, and Ole Miss is trusting a first-time head coach to hold together a roster that just tasted the Playoff under someone else. This one has the shape of a game that tells us a lot more about both teams' ceilings than the rankings currently suggest.