How Ole Miss is building on talent through transfer portal

Acquiring talent through the transfer portal is the new reality of college football. And it’s something that Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels have been simply dominating this offseason, currently ranking No. 3 in the nation in the 2024 On3 Transfer Portal Rankings. They’ve reeled in some of the best players in the country, such as former Texas A&M defensive tackle Walter Nolen. On the Thursday evening edition of Andy Staples On3, OMSpirit’s Zach Berry discussed the Rebels bringing in one of the nation’s best hauls.

“Yeah, you’ve gotta always reload the trenches. That was what Nick Saban did. Princely Umanmielen, Walter Nolen, to go along with J.J. Pegues, Jared Ivey, T.J. Dudley. They have a lot of true sophomores that they’re excited about. But you have to shore up that pass rush. Being effective against the run. Being able to stone people at the line. Demand those double teams to free up other people,” Berry said.

Nolen was considered an elite player coming out of high school, being a Five-Star Plus+ prospect and No. 1 overall in the 2022 On3 Industry Rankings. The same can be said of the defensive lineman in the transfer portal, being the top overall player in the 2024 On3 Industry Transfer Portal Rankings.

“But yeah, I think that that was probably the biggest thing Kiffin knew he needed to do was add some elite instant impact players to that defensive front. There were times, the story for this season was, it was kind of a come to Jesus moment for Kiffin at Ole Miss, when they played Georgia. And it was not close. It was a blowout. It was a disaster. And just Kiffin talking about how physical Georgia was and how Ole Miss was just not physical. They couldn’t hold up. They weren’t deep enough. I think that that was the biggest thing,” Berry continued.

The scoreboard only told part of the story in the Georgia-Ole Miss game this year and it wasn’t a pretty one. The Bulldogs routed the Rebels to the tune of a 52-17 beatdown. Georgia ran the football with authority for the entire game, pounding and pummeling their way to 300 yards and five touchdowns on 35 carries. Clearly, it was an eye-opening moment for Kiffin and company that they needed to get better in the trenches. And they responded in the right way this offseason.

“And on the offensive side, you get Jaxson Dart back. You get Diego Pounds at North Carolina, starting left tackle that protected Drake Maye, and then you go get Juice Wells. You bring back Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins. And then you mentioned [Quinshon] Judkins. Losing him is big. I mean, just, the guy was in the same sentence as Herschel Walker for the first two years in college,” the OM Spirit staff writer continued.

In order to replace the loss of Quinshon Judkins, the Rebels picked up Logan Diggs, who rushed for 653 yards and seven touchdowns last year for LSU. When he was with Notre Dame in 2022, he had his best season, with 820 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

“I mean, he was outstanding, but Ole Miss goes and gets Logan Diggs from LSU, who was really good at Notre Dame. Had some injuries at LSU, but had a great year. I think Ole Miss expects him back kind of after the non-conference slate to start the year. And I think Ole Miss will probably try to go at one more to go along with Ulysses Bentley,” Berry said.

Quinshon Judkins rushed for over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons for the Rebels, including over 1,500 yards and 16 touchdowns his freshman year. He had the second most rushing yards by a freshman in SEC history, just behind the legendary Herschel Walker, like Berry mentioned.

“So, yeah, the portal, it’s been Kiffin’s way of bridging that gap between the tier 1 SEC, the tier 1 national programs, to make not only Ole Miss relevant in a dark horse playoff team. To where now I think there is no dark horse anymore. They are a legit threat to the College Football Playoff,” Berry finished.

The Rebels were recently listed as having 15-1 odds to win the National Championship in 2024, so it’s clear that the public thinks Kiffin and Ole Miss have an excellent chance to punch their tickets to the 2024 College Football Playoff. It marks the first year of the new 12-team format.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this article.