OXFORD – We’re just over two weeks into Ole Miss’ fall practice – and just over two weeks away from the No. 21 Rebels’ season opener against Georgia State at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Ole Miss is coming off its third double-digit win season in four years but returns just four starters from last year’s 10-3 team. With the 2025 campaign around the corner, here are a few observations/things learned at practice availabilities and post-practice interviews.
The defensive line is still very deep
Usually when you lose four starters from a defensive front that helped the Rebels lead the nation in sacks per game and tackles-for-loss – including three NFL Draft picks – the next season’s group might experience a dropoff. While it’s probably not fair to expect the 2025 Ole Miss defensive front to produce the same accolades as last year’s group, it appears poised to be disruptive.
The Rebels were already in good shape given the losses with the return of a few experienced pieces. Junior linebacker/end Suntarine Perkins is the leading returning sacker in the SEC (10.5), redshirt sophomore Jamarious Brown was a freshman All-American, and senior Zxavian Harris has 65 career tackles. Highly touted youngsters like sophomore end Kam Franklin and sophomore defensive tackle Will Echoles also appeared to take big steps in the spring. Add in a few big-name transfers – LSU’s Da’Shawn Womack and Nebraska’s Princewill Umanmielen – and the defensive line looks to be in a good place.
Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin told reporters earlier in the week that the first-team defensive line “is really good” and made life difficult on the offensive line in the weekend’s scrimmage. He praised the pass rush and said Umanmielen – the brother of former Ole Miss star Princely Umanmielen – was the defensive player of the game and that Perkins had a pick-six.
Ole Miss had the No. 2 scoring and rush defense in college football to go along with its impressive sack and tackle-for-loss totals in 2024. Will this group achieve those same things? It’s hard to say now. But the defensive trenches appear to be in solid shape.
Austin Simmons is not a finished product
Expecting Simmons to immediately do the things Jaxson Dart did as a third-year starter isn’t really fair. Dart was one of the best quarterbacks in college football last season, leading the nation in total offense per game and passing efficiency while finishing third in passing yards en route to first-team All-SEC honors and becoming a first-round pick.
Simmons became a household name last season when he stepped in for Dart against Georgia and produced a key touchdown drive while the former was treated for injury. The redshirt sophomore has yet to start a game in his career, however, and while he is immensely talented, he isn’t perfect.
Simmons committed “critical errors” in last weekend’s scrimmage but rebounded, according to Kiffin, though he was without some of his regular offensive line and was facing what appears to be another dominant defensive front. But anticipating Simmons to step in from the get-go and do what Dart did in 2024 is tough. Remember, even Dart took his lumps his first season at Ole Miss, throwing 11 interceptions; he threw 11 over the next two seasons combined. Sometimes it takes a little patience, even with the most talented quarterbacks.
Maybe we should be talking more about Kewan Lacy
Ole Miss’ struggles to run the ball last season have been discussed ad nauseum: the Rebels’ 175.7 yards per game was the fewest under Kiffin, and that number was 142.6 yards per game on 3.7 yards per carry in SEC play. Ole Miss retooled its running back room in the offseason, adding Troy’s Damien Taylor and Missouri’s Kewan Lacy to go with Logan Diggs, who missed all but one game last season as he recovered from a knee injury.
Diggs has 1,720-career rushing yards over four seasons at Notre Dame, LSU and Ole Miss. Taylor ran for 1,010 yards and seven touchdowns last season for the Trojans. But it’s Lacy – a four-star recruit in the 2024 class who ran for just 104 yards as a freshman for the Tigers – who has been turning heads of late. Kiffin said Lacy “has been electric,” which checks out given his background as a sprinter in high school. Lacy doesn’t have the collegiate production that Diggs and Taylor have, but he could wind up being a major factor in the running back rotation.
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