OXFORD – Given the high-profile wide receivers who have been on his previous Ole Miss teams, head coach Lane Kiffin’s claim from Wednesday’s press conference holds significant weight.
“This is – coaches say this stuff all the time – I do think and have looked at every year we’ve been here, this is the deepest receiver group,” Kiffin said of the Rebels’ current wide receiver room.
Ole Miss lost a pair of NFL Draft picks in Tre Harris and Jordan Watkins this offseason, a 500-yard receiver in Antwane “Juice” Wells Jr. and return just one player on the entire roster who had more than 28 catches a season ago in Cayden Lee (57). But college football has changed dramatically, and just because you suffer massive losses to personnel doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch any more. The transfer portal allows for quick fixes and instant reloads.
“The days before where you used to almost be able to figure out how good a team was based off their returning starters. And you say, ‘OK, these guys have a lot coming back, they’re going to be good, these guys don’t,’” Kiffin said. “Really is completely different (now), because a lot of times you’re getting starters from other teams in the portal. I know on paper that wouldn’t look very good with four returning starters, but it doesn’t feel like that at all out there. I think that we have a lot of good depth in spots and a lot of players challenging each other, and it’s been really good.”
Harris, Watkins and Wells combined for 2,489 receiving yards and 22 touchdowns last season. The Rebels’ additions of wide receivers De’Zhaun Stribling (Oklahoma State), Harrison Wallace III (Penn State), Deuce Alexander (Wake Forest) and Traylon Ray (West Virginia) had a combined 2,428 yards and yards and 16 touchdowns at their respective schools last year. Add in Lee’s 874 yards and two touchdowns from 2024 and a handful of talented receivers from the high-school ranks, and the Rebels are as deep as they’ve been at wide receiver, according to Kiffin. That includes rooms with Biletnikoff Award finalist Elijah Moore, 1,000-yard receivers like Dontario Drummond, dynamic duos such as Malik Heath and Jonathan Mingo, who combined for 1,832 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2022 and, of course, last year’s quartet of Harris, Watkins, Wells and Lee.
“I definitely don’t think (a crowded receiver room is) a negative thing,” Alexander said. “We all know what the goal is. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal.”
It’s not hard to get a talented group to buy into the receivers room as a whole rather than into individual numbers, Kiffin said, because the NFL will find players regardless of how many games you started. And when the fast-paced Ole Miss offense is at its best, there are plenty of targets to go around.
“A lot of guys are obviously motivated by the NFL and the draft, and so we talk to them a lot. You can have missed some starts or be a part-time starter. They don’t care when they go to draft you. Look at where Jordan (Watkins) went after at one point not even starting early in the year,” Kiffin said.
“We just tell guys, hey, it’s going to take care of itself. We play a lot of snaps. When the system is at its best, you do have receiver depth. … That would allow us, if we stay healthy, to truly rotate like you should and be better in the fourth quarter of games. … That receiver depth allows you to play better in the fourth.”
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