TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D1 XC Top 25 Teams (Men): #17 Ole Miss Rebels

We are aware that certain conferences and universities will not be competing this fall due to ongoing concerns surrounding COVID-19. However, for the sake of content, we have constructed these rankings as if a regular cross country season will happen.

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Ole Miss is a team that we had a hard time ranking.

A uniquely-built cross country squad that is made up of numerous middle distance runners, the Rebels have been very successful during the cross country regular season over the past two years. In fact, they have been great at postseason meets like the SEC Championships and the South Regional Championships.

However, they haven't always finished where we thought they would when it comes to the national meet.

Last year’s Terre Haute course was probably one of the worst courses possible for a team with multiple 800 meter and 1500 meter specialists. The Rebels' 22nd place finish at the NCAA Championships was evidence of that.

Conversely, on a flat and quick course at Joe Piane, the Ole Miss men finished 2nd behind Colorado in what was a clear result of their incredible speed and turnover.

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This is no longer a young Ole Miss team.

The last two years have been fun to watch if you're an Ole Miss cross country fan, mainly because there hasn't really been any pressure for this group to post jaw-dropping results given their youth. But now most of those runners are juniors or seniors and with a heavy portion of these top runners nearing the end of their eligibility, 2020 was the season where the Rebels had to deliver a big finish.

Top scorer Waleed Suliman was set to enter his final season of cross country of eligibility this fall. The men from Oxford do not lose much after him, but he has been their most consistent finisher at the National Championships, offering a pair of All-American finishes and underrated scoring potency.

The Ole Miss low-stick came in at TSR #14 in our preseason rankings. For someone who would typically be considered a miler, his overall consistency on the grass at the national level has been remarkable. In fact, one may argue that the best portions of his college resume may have come during the cross country season.

In a hypothetical year where everything is normal, you could have penned in Suliman as an All-American finisher yet again.

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Retaining a talent like Suliman is huge, but losing a highly-valuable #2 runner in Farah Abdulkarim is a tough blow. He was a great front-runner for this team throughout 2019 (emerging as the top scorer at Joe Piane) and gave the Ole Miss men some underrated scoring potency alongside Suliman. He may have been their only loss from last year, but it was certainly a big one.

Not only that, but losing veteran Parker Scott (who is no longer listed on the Rebel's 2020 cross country roster) gives the Ole Miss men one less option at the backend of their lineup. He was a sneaky strong talent who finished 32nd at Joe Piane last fall.

Luckily, there are a variety of different scorers who were set to return to this team in 2020, many of whom made appearances as strong and reliable top-five varsity options.

Cade Bethmann is one guy who could nicely step into that second scoring spot left behind by Abdulkarim. He struggled at the NCAA Championships last year, but held his own in 2018 when he finished 93rd overall. His performances at Joe Piane (22nd) and Pre-Nationals (24th) indicate that he could be a potential low-stick for this team and (in an ideal world) maybe even an All-American candidate. He gives Ole Miss a solid, consistent contributor at the front portion of their lineup.

A current junior set to play a big role for the Rebels was/is Mario Garcia Romo. He was one of the top Ole Miss runners at the National Championships last year when he finished 111th. He also had a great race at Joe Piane last year, finishing 24th overall.

The Ole Miss scorer was a consistent performer for his team throughout the 2019 season and would have been a very important stabilizing presence in the Rebels' top five this fall.

One other upperclassmen to keep an eye on is Michael Coccia. He had an up-and-down 2019 season which ended with a 192nd place finish at NCAA’s. A rare non-middle distance runner for the Rebels, Coccia owns personal bests of 8:04 (3k) and 14:02 (5k). He also time trialed a 3:41 (1500) earlier this summer.

In other words, Coccia is primed for a breakout season (whenever competition returns) and we've seen that he can be a respectable scorer for Ole Miss when he's at his best (i.e. finishing 13th at the SEC Championships last fall and placing 32nd in the Pre-Nationals Cardinal race in 2018).

These three upperclassmen aren't necessarily surefire top 100 finishers at the National Championships, but each individual has the talent to do so. The Rebels' season would have depended on at least two of these men breaking through and giving Suliman more support up front or everyone incrementally progressing to make up for the loss of Abdulkarim.

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Outside of that group, the Rebels have plenty other pieces who represent another layer of their depth and fill in the backend role that Parker Scott left behind.

Dalton Hengst, Nick Moulai, Ben Savino and Everett Smulders all have shown flashes of brilliance on the track or on the grass. None have had consistent fall seasons, but each have the talent to fill out the back end of Ole Miss’ lineup.

However, the one wild card that we were looking forward to watching in 2020 is Cole Bullock. We did not get to see him often during his freshman campaign, but he showed off his potential last fall with a 9th place finish at the SEC Championships.

After sitting out of the South Regional Championships, Bullock's inexperience got the best of him at Nationals. Still, that brief flash of potential from his conference meet is tantalizing and gives the Rebels some exciting upside going into our hypothetical 2020 season.

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Like a few other programs we have yet to get to, this is team that is loaded with underrated depth and numerous varsity options. Unfortunately, many of these athletes are not proven on the national stage and the loss of a top low-stick and a veteran backend runner is far from ideal.

In terms of ability, this team had the potential to finish near (or in) the top-10 at the now cancelled National Championships. Of course, that is the same thing we said last year when they finished 22nd.

We opted to place them somewhere between those two possibilities at TSR #17, but they certainly have a much higher ceiling than most programs that we have listed in this range.