Ole Miss Football: 5 takeaways from Rebels’ 2017 season

The 2017 campaign treated Ole Miss football pretty well, including a six win season and a win over in-state rival Mississippi State to cap things off.

Ole Miss football went through its first season with head coach Matt Luke at the helm in Oxford. After signing on to being the full-time head coach with the Rebels immediately following the regular season, Luke is now the guy for Ole Miss.

It was an up and down season, to say the least, for the Rebels in 2017. Star sophomore quarterback Shea Patterson got the Ole Miss offense off to a fast start this year, but started to tail off at the start of SEC play. A season-ending injury to Patterson against the LSU Tigers would then put JUCO transfer quarterback Jordan Ta’amu in the spotlight.

Ole Miss also sported a very young team in 2017. With the sanctions that came down following the regular season, limiting scholarships and extending the postseason ban for the Rebels, it put the rebuilding phase timeline much longer than originally hoped for by Ole Miss fans.

The Rebels finished the regular season with a record of 6-6 (3-5 SEC). Ole Miss actually was not the last place team in the SEC West in 2017. The Arkansas Razorbacks finished in the basement in the SEC West, and posted the second worst record in the conference altogether, only ahead of the Tennessee Volunteers. Arkansas and Tennessee both fired its head coaches in 2017.

All things considered, it was a relatively positive season for this program. There’s something to build off of, despite the transfers of players like Patterson and wide receiver Van Jefferson.

Here’s the 5 takeaways from the 2017 campaign for the Ole Miss Rebels.