NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
OXFORD ― Patience does not award you any guarantees in this era of college athletics ‒ especially within a program like Ole Miss football, which attacks the transfer portal with a vigor that few can match.
When one veteran starter leaves, it’s a safe bet that coach Lane Kiffin will scour the portal for another experienced option. Kiffin lost one of his starting wideouts in Dayton Wade at the season’s conclusion, so he went out and landed a former All-SEC player in Juice Wells. The waiting game no longer works for the likes of Cayden Lee and Ayden Williams, Ole Miss’ two gifted receivers from the 2023 freshman class. They’ll have to earn starting places by being better than the experienced options Kiffin brings over the top of them.
It’s a situation many would run from. But both Wiliams and Lee, known by his nickname Honeycomb, are still Rebels.
“I actually had a talk with Honeycomb about that, because you gotta realize, the stuff we learn in here, it’s like the NFL,” Williams said Tuesday. “So with guys coming in, it’s gonna be like that when we go to the next level. As long as we stay here, learn everything we need to do, compete here; when we get to the next level, it’s going to be no problem. Guys coming in and out, that don’t worry me. As long as I put my work in, God is going to take care of the rest.”
The impact of the transfer turnover has been particularly ruthless on Kiffin’s freshman receiver signees.
Less than 10% of Ole Miss’ passing production since Kiffin’s arrival in 2020 has gone to players he recruited out of high school, with the bulk made up by transfers and holdovers from the Matt Luke era. Three transfers: Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins and Wells are the presumptive favorites to make up Ole Miss’ first-choice trio of receivers in 2024.
But the Rebels have made their belief in Lee and Williams…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ole-miss-football-keeps-adding-214318502.html
Author : The Clarion Ledger
Publish date : 2024-04-09 21:43:18
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
