Coming off the heels of a 10-win season and a Sugar Bowl victory, Ole Miss looked set to be a player again in the SEC West and nationally. The Rebels returned one of the best quarterbacks in the country, along with plenty of skill-position talent, but early-season collapses against Florida State, Alabama and Arkansas quickly turned a season of hope into a season of what ifs in Oxford.
The Rebels finished 5-7 this season and it only seemed to pile up with several injuries in key positions, a season-ending loss to rival Mississippi State with bowl eligibility on the line and the cloud of a seemingly never-ending NCAA investigation into the football program.