OXFORD — If this is what constitutes a problem for Ole Miss in 2024, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. will probably be OK with it.
The Rebels return three starters from last year’s offensive line — center Caleb Warren, guard/tackle Jeremy James and tackle Micah Pettus — and six players with starting experience in the program, including junior tackle Jayden Williams, who started every game at left tackle in 2022. Additionally, the Rebels brought in Julius Buelow and Nate Kalepo from Washington, who started nine games and all 15 games for the Huskies in 2023, respectively, North Carolina tackle Diego Pounds and Southern Miss guard Gerquan Scott.
Pounds started nine games for the Tar Heels last year while Scott, who also has experience at center, started 41 games with the Golden Eagles. There are only five starting spots available on the offensive line, and how that works itself out remains to be seen over the next few weeks. But Weis doesn’t think having options is a bad thing at all.
A total of eight offensive lineman played at least 180 snaps for the Rebels in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus.
“I think we definitely want that to be the case. However many guys that we feel are playing at the level that, we can win SEC games at, I think that’s the amount of guys that will play rotationally,” Weis said. “If you look at last year, we rotated about seven guys for most of the season, which I think helped us out a good bit. And then it kind of hurt when we got a couple injuries we were only down to about five guys that could play. So, I think the goal is definitely to play more than just five throughout the season, and we’re fortunate to have a bunch of good candidates to play this year.”
Scott has worked some at center for parts of practice available to media the last two weeks, and combinations of Pounds, Kalepo, Buelow, Warren, Pettus, Williams, James and Scott have all been with the first-group offensive line at various points of the available viewing; younger players like Preston Cushman have also been in the mix. Ole Miss’ offense averaged 461.9 yards of offense per game last season, which was 13th nationally and third in the SEC behind just LSU and Georgia. As a team, the Rebels ranked 86th nationally in pass blocking grade and were tied for 81st in run blocking grade, per PFF.
Scott had a pass-block grade of 66.5 and a run-block grade of 58.2 last season at Southern Miss and did not allow a sack, according to PFF. Kalepo had five games where his pass-block grade was above a 75, including a season-best 80.6 against Oregon in the regular season. Pounds had a pass-block grade of 74 for the year at North Carolina in 2023, including a stretch where he had a grade of 75 or more in each of the final five games. He did not allow a sack after Week 4.
“(We’re) really deep. I mean, we have us some talent,” Scott said. “I think we definitely have two groups, with everybody ready … Everybody’s learning, everybody’s moving fast and looking alright to me.”
Consistent competition like what the Rebels have makes it nearly impossible to “take off a day,” Scott said. And that’s a good thing.
“ …I think each and every day, everybody knows that nobody has a guaranteed spot. … We have people who can start at every position. … It makes us want to come in every day and work hard, because we know that we always have somebody behind us that basically wants to beat out somebody.”
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