This off-season, the college football world’s been grooming Arch Manning to be the undisputed face of the sport, showering him with crazy Heisman odds, national championship odds, and ultimately pegging him as the face of ‘college football’. However, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is not sold on the hype. He sees a different quarterback taking over the game this fall.

During an August 3 appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Herbstreit acknowledged that Lane Kiffin moving to LSU is a massive storyline. But when asked to pick the true face of the sport, he stayed in Oxford. Herbstreit pointed straight to Kiffin’s former quarterback at Ole Miss, Trinidad Chambliss.

“I think, by the way, that the face of the sport going into the season as much as people are going to talk about Arch Manning, I really think Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss,” Herbstreit confessed.

By making this choice, Herbstreit denied Manning the crown. Manning carries the ultimate football last name as the nephew of Peyton and Eli, commanding headlines before ever securing a full-time starting job. Herbstreit snubbed that royalty in favor of a player whose recognition came from actual production rather than pedigree.

Trinidad Chambliss took the hard road to stardom. Unranked out of high school without a single FBS scholarship offer, he spent four years grinding in Division II at Ferris State before landing at Ole Miss.

Once Austin Simmons (starter at Ole Miss last season) got injured, Chambliss made the best of the opportunity. Despite missing a couple of games early in the season, he tore up defenses all year long, throwing for 3,937 passing yards to lead the entire SEC.

He protected the ball with 22 touchdowns against just three interceptions. The numbers back up Herbstreit’s choice. Chambliss posted eight 300-yard passing games last year, while Manning recorded only four.

The former D2 player took the Rebels to their first-ever College Football Playoff, something not even the likes of Jaxson Dart or Matt Corral could do. The Rebels were just one catch away from making the national championship game!

However, getting to this point wasn’t easy, as Chambliss had to fight a legal battle to play this year. The NCAA originally denied his request for an extra season of eligibility, which seemed likely to end his college career early. Refusing to back down, Chambliss took the NCAA to court and won a preliminary injunction that granted him a sixth year on the field.

The good news is, his legal troubles are behind him. Analysts across the country are eyeing Chambliss as a major frontrunner for the Maxwell Award, given to the best player in college football. He is also sitting right at the top of early Heisman Trophy watch lists, making Ole Miss a must-watch team. Herbstreit guaranteed the crew that if they actually brought Chambliss on the air, they would instantly fall in love with his magnetic personality.

He believes the Kiffin-Trinidad storyline hasn’t ended. It’s heading to a showdown when the LSU Tigers head to Mississippi. That should be the biggest and most anticipated story of the post-NIL era of college football.