OXFORD – While Ole Miss fans likely want a more immediate answer on whether their beloved head coach will be roaming the sidelines at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium next season, the Rebels faithful can take solace in something undeniable: The program is in as good of a place as it has been in decades.

With its 34-24 win over Florida on Saturday night, No. 7 Ole Miss improved to 10-1 on the season and secured a third straight double-digit winning season for the first time in program history. It’s the school’s 11th 10-win season ever and fourth in the last five years under head coach Lane Kiffin. The win also secured the program’s first 8-0 home record.

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was filled to the brim and then some for the matchup with the Gators – a game that went far beyond the result on the field due in no small part to Florida’s courtship of Kiffin for their current head coaching vacancy. As always, Kiffin kept things close to the vest postgame as to what his immediate future held.

But Kiffin took time to acknowledge just how far the program has come in his six seasons, particularly since his first game at Ole Miss was a 51-35 loss to Florida in the shortened 2020 season.

“It’s really cool to see where our program is. Not just in that matchup versus them, but in the SEC,” Kiffin said. “ … As you get older, everybody always says, ‘The good old days.’ Like, ‘Remember when in the good old days, when we were in high school?’ and everybody talks about how good they were. And I said, ‘Hey guys, I think we’re in the good old days right now.’ So, I think we’re in them. I think for our fans, for our players, it’s like this utopia of what’s going on. So, enjoy it, because these runs don’t happen very often anywhere. So, it’s really cool.”

A record-breaking crowd of 68,138 made sure to enjoy Saturday for what it was: a first-hand look at a program dong things it’s either never done or hasn’t done in decades. Ole Miss is on the verge of locking up its first berth in the College Football Playoff and has a chance at the first 11-win regular season in program history with an Egg Bowl win. The Rebels are 35-3 at home since the beginning of the 2021 season.

As senior quarterback Trinidad Chambliss took the final kneel down of the night, the stadium was just as deafening, if not more so, than it had been all game. Chants of “We want Lane” proceeded to chorus down from the stands as players and coaches celebrated on the field. The energy did not go unnoticed by Rebels players.

They felt something special in Oxford, too.

“That was amazing. Shout out to all the fans that came out and supported us. They really made a difference in that game,” Chambliss said. “It was cool to see how involved they were with the noise and just interacting with them after the game, too. That was just special and probably one of the best night games that I’ve ever played in, ever. So yeah, it was really cool to see everyone come out and be so intense and just be electric.”