Lane Kiffin evaluates what Juice Wells brings to Ole Miss' wide receiver room

Ole Miss added one of the best players, let alone receivers, in the portal this offseason in Juice Wells. It’s now about how he and that status changes the dynamics of all the targets in Oxford.

Lane Kiffin spoke about Wells during his press conference on Wednesday following the start of fall camp for the Rebels. He has loved what he has seen so far from the transfer receiver. That’s especially so now that he’s back and healthy for his season as a redshirt senior.

“I think Juice has rehabbed really well. He has trained really hard,” said Kiffin. “He seems to be highly competitive at things and really wanting to get better.”

“I’ve been very pleased with Juice,” Kiffin said.

Wells spent two seasons apiece at James Madison and South Carolina so far during his collegiate career. Over 38 games, including 27 starts, at both programs, he has caught 187 passes for 2,818 yards and 28 touchdowns in total. 71 receptions, 965 yards, and seven scores came over his pair of years with the Gamecocks. He led them in receiving in his first season but played in just three games last fall due to a foot injury.

That justified Wells as the No. 3 WR and No. 24 overall transfer per On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players.

Wells is clearly a top-end talent as a pass catcher with that resumé. The matter now is how that fits into an offense with several other players with significant production. That includes returning targets for QB Jaxson Dart in names like Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins, and Caden Prieskorn. It doesn’t include their other transfer additions or even the running back rotation for the unit either.

Simply put, there’s only one football to go around. That means an adjustment and acceptance for the players that they’ll all be sacrificing in some way individually in hopes of succeeding as a team.

“Again, a cost to the benefit of having a lot of receivers, you know, is you’ve got to figure that out. But you’ve also got to spend a lot of time getting them to understand the goal of winning,” said Kiffin. “That has got to override the individual numbers at times because there’s not a way where all these guys – tight end, receivers – are all going to have these gigantic statistical years.”

“It just can’t happen – not enough balls,” Kiffin said. “We spent a lot of time on that.”

If back at full strength, Wells will almost certainly be a major plus for the Ole Miss offense. It’s just a question of how and to what extent that changes it, which is what they’ll now figure out over the next month during practice in The ‘Sip.