Spring Vibe Check: The spectrum of human experience

With the current transitory nature of college athletics, vibes can shift dramatically from year to year, season to season and even month to month. Programs that finished 2025 on a high note may have flopped in the portal. Programs that bottomed out last year may have had a big-time recruiting haul or hired a new coordinator that has their fans and boosters tickled pink. That’s why this April we’re going to do a little check under the hood of all 12 upcoming Tiger football opponents to see what the spring vibes are around each program. We’ll check the oil, smell the brakes, listen to the muffler and rate the vibes for each team.

In the third iteration of the Spring Vibe Check ™ this off-season, we take a look at three SEC programs that show the full range of vibes available to the human mind. We’ve got highs and we’ve got lows, peaks and valleys, joys and sorrows. Playoff expectations and bowl eligibility battles. And that’s just the ever-delusional minds of Arkansas football fans.

Ole Miss

Few programs exit 2025 and enter the 2026 season with better vibes than the Rebels. No programs have quite as strange of a vibe profile as Ole Miss, which managed to watch its coach leave for a better job before the season was even over and still somehow finished the year playing its best football.

Coming off a surprise semifinal run in the College Football Playoff, Ole Miss is riding high heading into the off-season. The Rebels followed that momentum by attacking the transfer portal with familiar aggression, landing the No. 2 portal class nationally according to 247Sports, trailing only the LSU program led by their former head coach. Ole Miss has never been shy about spending in the portal, but this cycle felt particularly intentional. There was something to prove, both in trying to replicate last season’s breakthrough and in keeping pace with Lane Kiffin’s new powerhouse roster in Baton Rouge.

The high school recruiting class also held its own, ranking No. 22 nationally. When paired with the elite portal haul, Ole Miss sits at No. 13 overall in combined incoming talent according to 247, which reinforces the idea that the Rebels are not treating last year as a one-off moment.

The off-season vibes truly hit their peak when a judge delivered a bizarrely tearful ruling. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was granted another year of eligibility despite NCAA resistance. Chambliss enters 2026 as a legitimate Heisman frontrunner, and his return alone keeps expectations sky high. He will be working with a new offensive coordinator in John David Baker, but he does have some continuity around him, including returning running back and former Mizzou Tiger Kewan Lacy, who provides both production and familiarity in the backfield.

From the outside, though, there is some reason for caution. Pete Golding enters his first full season as head coach after taking over following Kiffin’s departure. His postseason run as the replacement coach was wildly successful, but handling a playoff push over an entire season is a much different challenge than guiding a team through a short stretch.

Even if Golding proves capable, the schedule will not make life easy. Ole Miss faces a significantly tougher slate in 2026, and repeating a playoff run is never simple, especially with a new head coach learning on the job.

Still, none of that seems to be dampening the mood in Oxford. Talent is flowing in, the quarterback is back and last year’s success still lingers in memory. Regardless of what skeptics may say about sustainability, the vibes in Oxford remain overwhelmingly positive.

Official Spring 2026 Ole Miss Vibes Rating: A

Arkansas

From the top of the mountain to pit of despair, the vibes are quite different in Fayetteville than they are a few hours south (or north or east or west for that matter.) Ryan Silverfield begins his Razorback tenure with less than immaculate vibes. As perhaps the Hogs’ second, third, or even fourth choice, most Arkansas fans weren’t exactly popping champagne when his name was announced.

Silverfield did have success at Memphis before coming to Fayetteville, but it never really felt like he maximized the funding and structural advantages his teams had over the rest of the AAC. That résumé reads solid, not spectacular. Fine if you’re stabilizing, less inspiring if you’re dreaming big. Still, Arkansas needed a reset, and resets rarely arrive wrapped in five-star enthusiasm.

As is common with any modern program turning over a new staff, and at Arkansas, what feels like every year, the roster churned like a washing machine. The Hogs lost 41 players to the portal and added 42, a nearly full roster remix that makes spring depth charts feel more like rough drafts than finished products. Despite the chaos, their incoming portal class turned out respectable, landing at 31st nationally according to 247. The high school class, however, took the predictable hit that comes with coaching uncertainty, slipping to 46th nationally and 15th in the SEC, just ahead of Kentucky, another program navigating its own transition.

Arkansas is still in the thick of spring practice, with the spring game set for this weekend, but early reports suggest the staff has at least patched one glaring leak: the defensive front. That group was among the SEC’s worst last season, so even modest improvement there would count as meaningful progress.

Offensively, the Hogs do return sophomore quarterback KJ Jackson, who appeared to supplant Taylen Green by the end of 2025. He didn’t light up the stat sheet, but his athleticism and decision-making flashed enough late in the year to generate some cautious buzz. Pair him with talented, if injury-prone, running back Braylen Russell, and Arkansas at least has the outline of an offense capable of making Saturdays interesting. Overall, the Arkansas vibes aren’t overwhelming, but things at least feel a bit more hopeful than just about any time, save the beginning, of the Sam Pittman regime.

Official Spring 2026 Arkansas Vibes Rating: C

Texas

Few programs enter a new season with vibes quite as loud, and (this time at least) justified, as Texas. The Longhorns aren’t just recruiting well; they’re recruiting like a program that fully expects to spend January playing meaningful football. Their third-ranked portal class paired with a fourth-ranked incoming high school class gives Texas one of the most talent-rich roster overhauls in the country, and more importantly, one that looks built to sustain success rather than chase it for a single season. In the modern SEC arms race, roster depth isn’t optional, and Texas appears to be stockpiling it like a team preparing for a long winter.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian has only added fuel to the fire, openly stating that this is the most talented roster he’s had since arriving in Austin. That’s not exactly faint praise considering the waves of blue-chip talent that have already passed through his program. Sark has steadily elevated the roster year over year, but this off-season feels different. It seems as if they’ve finally reached a point where they can stop worrying about plugging holes and worry more about layering strengths on top of strengths. The trenches look deeper, the skill groups look faster, and the defensive rotation appears built to survive the weekly grind that defines SEC life.

Of course, no vibe check for Texas is complete without mentioning Arch Manning, who returns for his fourth season and now his second as the full-time starter. Gone are the days of projection and promise. Manning now brings actual SEC experience into the fall, and that matters. Despite a slow start, last season offered flashes of the composure and arm talent that made him one of the most talked-about recruits in recent memory, but the biggest gain may have been confidence, both his own and the program’s in him. A veteran quarterback with pedigree, experience, and a loaded supporting cast tends to raise ceilings quickly.

Put it all together, and the math is simple: elite recruiting, veteran leadership, and a head coach openly confident in his roster. The V(eye)bes of Texas are not quietly optimistic, they’re loud, booming, and demanding. Championship or bust isn’t just the goal, it’s the vibe.

Official Spring 2026 Arkansas Vibes Rating: A+