Ole Miss has reached its last Friday before the first game week of the 2026 season, and the calendar has turned the preseason talk into something sharper. The opener against Louisville is on September 6th, which means the next time this team is being discussed in a normal football way, the conversation will be about who is actually on the field.
That is why this week keeps circling back to Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy, even though the real pressure sits just a little deeper in the roster. The article trims the usual 10 lists of 10 down to 6 lists of 5, but the headline issue is the same: Ole Miss is still sorting out the line in front of those skill players, and it needs to do it while replacing a huge chunk of last year’s passing production.
Terez Davis appears to be locking down the left tackle spot, which changes the math for everybody else. If that holds, Ole Miss only has to solve one tackle position instead of two. Tommie Kinsler would likely start at right tackle if the season began today, but the piece is blunt that he has not been as consistent as hoped. Carius Curne, who had previously been viewed as a lock there, is now described as having at least started to function like someone who cares about what he is doing. That is not the kind of certainty a team wants when it is four-plus months from kickoff.
The same hold-your-breath feel carries to the receivers, where the top three returning names in receptions are Alexander and Odom, along with the horde of transfers. Ole Miss has to replace 225 receptions, 3,388 yards and 19 touchdowns from Harrison Wallace, De’Zhaun Stribling, Cayden Lee, Dae’Quan Wright and Winston Watkins in 2025. Those numbers do more than fill a stat line. They define the size of the job in front of the offense, and they explain why the room still feels unfinished even after spring practice.
That was also the point in April, when the writer said this was a revisit of what had been written at the beginning of spring practice, and the same conclusion still seems to apply. Ole Miss was wildly thin up front last year and managed to get away with it. It is going to be wildly thin up front this year, too, even with better options at left tackle. The difference is that the margin for error gets smaller the closer the season gets, and the line can no longer hide behind the idea that the problems are still abstract.
There is another layer to that unease. The piece points back to East Carolina and to work the writer reviewed in December, saying that it dramatically improved the Pirates’ offense but had notable flaws. That matters because the coach involved is now facing the pressure cooker of an SEC job on a team carrying playoff expectations. In that light, the preseason list is not really about rankings at all. It is about whether Ole Miss can protect its quarterback, feed its playmakers and stop pretending the same depth issues will sort themselves out by September 6th.
Missouri, Florida and Auburn are the teams most likely to work their way into the Butt List, but the more immediate question is closer to home. If Davis holds on the left, if Kinsler steadies at right and if Curne is more than a reluctant fallback, Ole Miss can get to game week with one unresolved spot instead of two. If not, the first Friday before the 2026 season will look less like a countdown and more like a warning.
