Lane Kiffin shares his early impressions of Walter Nolen in Ole Miss camp

Of all the additions for Ole Miss in the transfer portal this offseason, DL Walter Nolen is the most significant. That’s why interest and intrigue are high about him entering his first season with the Rebels.

Lane Kiffin spoke about Nolen during his press conference after the opening of fall practice in The ‘Sip on Wednesday. He said that they haven’t fully been able to tell his excitement to be there because of who he is as a person.

“Well, Walter is not a big expressing-enthusiasm guy so he hasn’t said anything about that,” explained Kiffin. “Walter is pretty low-key, cool if you know him very well.”

However, while he may not show it, Ole Miss is certainly excited to have him for their defense. That has especially been so with what all he has done to this point with the program, including his first day of camp with his team yesterday.

“He practiced great today,” said Kiffin. “We’ve had a great experience with Walter in buying in and doing things that we want to on and off the field.”

Nolen joins on after a pair of seasons at Texas A&M. He appeared in 22 games with 14 starts while in College Station. That included a dozen appearances with 10 starts last season as a sophomore.

In that time, Nolen has posted 66 tackles, 11 being for loss, and five sacks. He also has a deflection, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery to his statline. That includes 37 tackles, 8.5 being for loss, and four sacks with the deflection last year.

Nolen, a native of Powell, Tennessee, was a Five-Star+ recruit and the top overall prospect from the 2022 cycle per On3’s Industry Ranking. Then, this offseason, Nolen rated as the No. 2 overall transfer behind only Caleb Downs (Ohio State) and the No. 1 DL in On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players.

Nolen now enters this season on several preseason polls and watch lists.

Nolen has many more impressions to make over practice this month going into his debut at Ole Miss. Still, it has been nothing but positives to this point when it comes to him for the Rebels.

“I think that, you know, it’s one practice but he’s headed in the right direction,” said Kiffin.

Kiffin evaluates what Juice Wells brings to Ole Miss

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.

“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 is clearly a top-end talent as a pass catcher with his resumé at James Madison and South Carolina. The matter now is how that fits into an offense with several other players with significant production and only one football to go around.

“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.”