OXFORD ― The 2022 national championship trophy sparkled an arm's length away from Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco as he settled on a sofa inside the Rebels' baseball facility. Father Time hadn't yet been allowed to dim the prize's shine less than two years after Ole Miss ascended the college baseball mountaintop.

But the Rebels must climb again from the base in 2024. Ole Miss endured its worst season among Bianco's 23 campaigns leading the program, finishing 25-29 overall and missing the SEC Tournament as the worst team in the conference. No one who appeared at the plate for Ole Miss during that magical 2022 run in Omaha remains on the roster. The pitching staff is almost entirely turned over, too, factoring in an injury to Hunter Elliott that saw him undergo Tommy John surgery.

Bianco and his staff, attacking the transfer portal with previously unrequired intensity during the offseason, constructed a new team to represent a program that – despite its recent success – needed rejuvenation.

So, when Bianco looks at the roster he's built, what excites him?

"The easy answer is that I think we're really good," Bianco told The Clarion Ledger. "For a team that could be very young, we don't seem very young. When you watch us run out on the field, I think it's a great mix of older and younger guys."

Ole Miss baseball seeks out proven replacements for departing stalwarts

Bianco had taken note of the postseason success experienced by veteran teams since the COVID-19 pandemic and its eligibility implications made it possible for programs to collect and retain older players like never before.

Now four years removed from the pandemic's onset, the impact on rosters across the country is trending down. But, the three-season experiment helped illustrate the value of experience.

"When you lose all of those guys, and you wake up, sometimes the best way to replace them is with older guys," Bianco said. "Guys that have experience and have done this before."

The three primary pillars of Ole Miss' lineup from last season are gone. Kemp Alderman, Jacob Gonzalez and Calvin Harris each finished the season with an OPS above .900. Several other veteran lineup fixtures like Peyton Chatagnier, Anthony Calarco and TJ McCants moved on, too.

To replace them, Bianco landed players who, on paper, look like proven commodities. Luke Hill (Arizona State), Jackson Ross (FAU) and Treyson Hughes (Mercer) all batted at least .300 last season. Ross and Hughes both hit above .340. Andrew Fischer slugged 11 home runs and registered a .999 OPS last year in the ACC at Duke.

Offensively, for the Rebels, it's quite the injection of talent.

Bianco thinks the modern college athletics landscape can be an asset to Ole Miss, which can sell a winning history and, of course, NIL opportunities that are proportional to baseball's elevated place within Ole Miss' athletic hierarchy. That portal haul, alongside some more low-key additions to the pitching staff, supports that belief.

"A lot of NIL opportunities are driven by the importance of your program at that institution," Bianco said, "the fanbase compared to the fanbases of other programs. When I say that, you would think that there's going to be more opportunities for NIL at programs that draw more, that have more interest in their program."

Last year, in its worst season since 1997, Ole Miss accumulated the fourth-highest total attendance in the country.

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Bianco shows trust in Ole Miss baseball's young arms

After its pitching staff finished last season with a 6.40 ERA, which ranked 189th in the country, it's noteworthy that Ole Miss made its headline-grabbing transfer moves on offense.

Bianco issued a preseason vote of confidence in talented young arms JT Quinn and Grayson Saunier, who were both asked to help carry an SEC staff as true freshmen last season. They finished with ERAs of 6.83 and 6.85, respectively, but he emphasized his belief in their individual talent.

"Those guys will be different this year," Bianco said. "When you sprinkle in another top-10 recruiting class, when you sprinkle in three guys out of the transfer portal, I think we like our pitching staff. I think we're at a good spot with the depth of it.

"We have to figure out some roles, obviously, and I think everybody has to do that. But we really like the team."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Why Mike Bianco believes Ole Miss baseball will be 'really good' in 2024