Ole Miss football has a storied history, with quite a few College Football Hall of Famers on their alumni rolls and three national championships. Let's dive into that history and rank the five greatest Ole Miss Rebel football players of all time (though I suspect Quinshon Judkins may find his way on this list in two years).
5. Deuce McAllister, RB
Speaking of running backs cracking the top five, let's begin with the Rebels' all-time leading rusher (for now) in Deuce McAllister, who suited up in red and blue from 1997-2000. Deuce McAllister was the key cog in an Ole Miss team that won the 1997 Motor City Bowl against a Marshall team that featured the likes of Chad Pennington and Randy Moss.
He is, to this point, the greatest running back to ever take the field for Ole Miss to date, and deservedly takes his place on this list.
4. Patrick Willis, LB
The Pro Football Hall of Famer started out his college career as an under-recruited three-star out of tiny Bruceton, Tennessee, but he would go on to put his name in the history books starting at Ole Miss. He finished his career with 355 tackles, good for sixth all-time. However, he would achieve national honors rare for an Ole Miss player at that time, winning All-SEC First-Team honors twice, along with the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award, the Dick Butkus Award, and the Jack Lambert Award in his senior season of 2006.
He may have come from a town of less than 1,500 people, but everyone in the football world knew his name when he put on the Ole Miss football helmet.
3. Matt Corral, QB
The most recent entrant to this list, Matt Corral's final season at Ole Miss came in 2021. He finished his illustrious career with the third-most passing yards in school history, and the third-most touchdowns as well, behind only Bo Wallace and Eli Manning for both.
Corral is by far one of the most beloved former Rebels of all time, and he was the undisputed leader of a 2021 Ole Miss team that became the first in school history to win 10 regular-season games.
He's the type of player who combined gaudy stats with a fire and passion that's going to get him talked about in Ole Miss football circles for generations to come.
2. Eli Manning, QB
Remember how I mentioned only Eli Manning and Bo Wallace were ahead of Matt Corral in the statistical leaderboards? Eli Manning tops both charts by some distance. After his older brother Peyton spurned the Rebels for Tennessee, eyes in north Mississippi turned to the youngest Manning. As Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe took the head coaching job at Ole Miss, it became increasingly clear it would be Eli who would follow in his father's footsteps.
He did more than that. He shattered every statistical landmark in his way. For as incredibly productive as Matt Corral's career was, he still threw 25 fewer touchdowns than Eli Manning. Think about that! There is one and only one reason he's not above his father on this list. Let's talk about it.
1. Archie Manning, QB
Archie Manning was the first Ole Miss player to really capture the college football zeitgeist. Sure, Charlie Conerly was a standout, but Archie was the guy on people's minds in the late '60s and very early '70s. As great as the other players on this list are, they don't have the mythology surrounding them like Archie that cements them at the top of their programs.
There's folklore about Archie that sounds like oral tradition passed down through Ole Miss alum for centuries. Sure, statistically Archie has fallen out of the top 10 in career passing yards and is seventh in career touchdowns, but you have to understand, they retired his jersey and made speed limits on campus 18 miles an hour. That's not something you do for just anybody. Eli would get his own speed limit treatment decades later, but it was Archie who laid the groundwork for what it meant to be a truly great Ole Miss Rebel.
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