Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin typically steers clear of talk about playoffs and championships.
This week is an exception.
There’s no sugarcoating the situation facing the 16th-ranked Rebels: They have to win out to keep those postseason hopes intact, starting with Saturday’s Southeastern Conference clash with powerhouse Georgia, which is No. 2 in the AP Top 25 and No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings heading to Oxford.
“I told our players — because they hear it all the time — you still have that stuff alive,” Kiffin said. “In my opinion, anybody that’s going to win it is going to have to go through Georgia at some point. They’re the premier program in college football.”
The Bulldogs (7-1, 5-1) have won two of the past three national titles — they were unbeaten last season before falling to Alabama in the SEC title game and missing the final four-team edition of the CFP before its expansion to 12 participants this year — and already toppled Texas, which was No. 1 in the AP Top 25 at the time. Only a close loss at Alabama in September mars the record of coach Kirby Smart’s ninth Georgia team.