OXFORD — While last Saturday’s Grove Bowl Games were about slam dunks, tug-of-war and a guest appearance by 16-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest winner Joey Chestnut, there was a bit of actual football in Oxford this spring.
Ole Miss, coming off the first 11-win campaign in program history, recently wrapped up spring practice. As opposed to the last few years, this Rebels team features far less questions overall. There is no semblance of a quarterback quandary, as senior Jaxson Dart is firmly entrenched under center and is one of the top returning quarterbacks in college football. The receiving corps is loaded, and an already-improved defense added even more talent via the transfer portal.
There was no tackling this spring, and there were key players out recovering from last season’s injuries. Head coach Lane Kiffin also made it known he didn’t think spring games were of much value. Still, there were some things to be learned from the team’s practices over the last few weeks. Here are three takeaways from spring football at Ole Miss.
If the goal was to get bigger, stronger, and more athletic, the Rebels appear to have succeeded
It’s been well documented at this point, but Kiffin’s comments following the team’s 52-17 loss at Georgia seemed to spark a change in how the Rebels went about roster building. There was a clear focus on improving the size and athleticism in the trenches, particularly defensively, after Georgia ran for 300 yards and five touchdowns and held Ole Miss’ potent offense to 10 total points after the first quarter.
To remedy the issues, the Rebels hit the transfer portal harder than ever. And, while there is still actual football to be played, the returns seem to be a step in the right direction.
They added former Texas A&M defensive tackle Walter Nolen — one of the top-ranked players in the entire portal — and former Florida defensive end Princely Umanmielen, himself ranked among the premier players on the transfer market. Chris Paul Jr., formerly of Arkansas, was brought in to shore up the linebacking corps. Along the offensive line, Ole Miss brought in veteran talent, including former North Carolina lineman Diego Pounds and a pair of Washington players in Julius Buelow and Nate Kalepo, the latter of whom started 15 games for the Joe Moore Award-winning Huskies last year.
The effort to improve athletically showed up on the back end of the defense too, as cornerbacks Amorion Walker (Michigan), Trey Amos (Alabama) and Brandon Turnage (Tennessee) certainly pass the eyeball test. Just watch Turnage’s dunk from last weekend.
Is the running back room complete?
While most of the Rebels’ offseason has been about additions, there was a key loss in the form of two-time All-SEC running back Quinshon Judkins, who transferred to Ohio State. Ole Miss still has Ulysses Bentley IV, who ran for 540 yards and four touchdowns last year. Judkins had 271 carries last season; Bentley hasn’t had more than 150 carries since his redshirt freshman season at SMU. Ole Miss added former LSU running back Logan Diggs this offseason, but Diggs underwent knee surgery and his return date remains murky at the moment. Is 2023 four-star recruit Kedrick Reescano ready for a bigger role?
The transfer portal is open once again, and there are a number of quality runners who are already available or may become available. Do the Rebels add one to the mix?
If you didn’t know Dart was the heartbeat and face of this team, you sure do now
Dart’s legend only grew this spring, when it was revealed he was one of the team’s key recruiters in the transfer portal on both sides of the ball. Umanmielen told the story of how Dart video messaged him during the recruiting process and how unfamiliar it was for him to have a quarterback involved with the entire team. Paul shared the story of the two playing Fortnite. Kiffin told reporters he had never seen a player help put together a team the way Dart was doing so, lauding his ability to lead as a unique trait.
Dart has always been outgoing, he said. But part of his leadership goes back to a conversation he had with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.’s father, who was the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots and served as head coach at both Notre Dame and Kansas. The conversation happened when he first arrived at Ole Miss in 2022, Dart said, and centered around quarterback Tom Brady. Brady was famously a sixth-round draft pick who ended up leading the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and won seven championships overall.
“I had a great talk with Coach Weis’ father, kind of going through some of the things that he saw different in Tom Brady than any other quarterbacks,” Dart said. “ … And what Coach Weis Sr. said was that (Brady) took responsibility to make a relationship with everybody on the team, regardless of position. And I think that when you have a team that can really look at a quarterback and say, ‘OK, I trust him, I see that he cares more than just about himself, he cares about everybody on the team.’ I think that’s just something I took to heart and really related.”
“ … I love making relationships with people. That’s what’s going to last a lifetime.”
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