Column: Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss football coaching staff have cleaned up in transfer portal

A couple of months ago after the early signing period, there were some vocal Ole Miss fans who were doubting the recruiting ability of Lane Kiffin and his Rebel staff.

There were a lot, including yours truly, who were holding our collective breath to see how things would shake out in the transfer portal, a recruiting avenue Kiffin said he would utilize abundantly.

Even though the high school/JUCO signing class for the early period was Top 20 in the nation, and that’s not bad, the harsh reality is the early class was/is behind eight current SEC schools and 10 of the expanded SEC when you throw in the recruiting efforts of Oklahoma and Texas, who we must start dealing with quickly because, ready or not, here they come.

So we gleefully strike out for the Sugar Bowl only to have our bubble busted – I know it’s burst, but we are in the South and busted works just fine – and we all head home to await what the coaches will do in the transfer portal, which we all know is critical to our immediate football future.

Everyone came home except Kiffin, who went fishing to the dismay of many Rebel fans. How dare he go on vacation when he should be leading the charge with his assistant coaches into the ripe and fertile ground of the transfer portal? Even though it was a dead period, and coaches couldn’t do much, that just didn’t sit well with some supporters.

Well, apparently Lane knows more about this recruiting stuff, and apparently fishing, than many/all of us do. Imagine that.

Almost abruptly, the portal guys started coming on board. One by one. Star after star.

Prior to the bowl game, 4-star DB Ladarius Tennison transferred in from Auburn and was quickly followed by Louisville WR Jordan Watkins. Both solid players expected to be important cogs at their respective positions.

Then on 01/06, 5-star RB Zach Evans pulled the trigger to come to Ole Miss from TCU. From there it seemed like things really heated up and the dominos started falling over the next three weeks.

Iowa State standout S Isheem Young, expected to take Jake Springer’s place in the Reb secondary, came on board on the 10^th and then Troy Brown, an LB from Central Michigan expected to challenge for Chance Campbell’s position, declared for the Rebels on the 12^th.

Momentum, excitement in the Rebel ranks.

The pieces of the puzzle were falling in place and the fishing trip was all but forgotten. (Maybe he should go on another one just before the season opener.)

On the 17^th, the Rebs got a needed OT commit from Western Kentucky’s Mason Brooks, a three-year starter for the Hilltoppers and certainly an important piece since it was thought Nick Broeker wanted to move inside to guard with the thought that would be his best option in the pros.

The next day, Oxford native J.J. Pegues decided to come home after a couple of years at Auburn. The 310-pound defensive tackle/tight end will be a vital component to the DL puzzle in 2022 it says here. In his brief work at DT for the Tigers, Jeremiah showed a great deal of potential and he says he likes that side of the ball just fine.

Things slowed for a week or so and the intrigue was the stuff of lore waiting on priority targets QB Jaxson Dart and TE Michael Trigg to make up their minds of where they wanted to land after attending Southern Cal for a year.

The daily angst by Rebel fans, despite Ben and Zach repeatedly writing and saying in podcasts that the insiders in the Manning Center were very confident in the outcome, was excruciating to the point of a couple of extremists fans actually saying they wish the pair would go elsewhere. And my family says I have a lack of patience.

It was 11 days – basically – of hand wringing. Will they? Won’t they?

Hear they are going to Oklahoma. Hear they visited BYU. Uh oh. If Caleb Williams goes to LSU, Dart is going to stay at USC. If Caleb goes to Wisconsin, who knows what Dart is going to do? Rumor after rumor after rumor.

Finally, they said it’s Ole Miss. Jubilation. Dancing in the streets.

And then, the cherry on the sundae – Georgia Tech DE Jared Ivey came on board. Overload of enthusiasm. Ivey could end up being the best of the lot. He has a ton of athletic ability and is a big man.

Number one transfer portal class in the country. Kiffin’s plan came together as well as one could hope and on paper it looks as if the Rebels won’t miss a beat next season despite losing a lot of good players at key positions.

And according to Ben and Zach, the Rebels aren’t finished with rounding out the 2022 roster with transfer players.

They are expecting as many as four more in the May-June range.

It was absolutely a home run, maybe a grand slam, but there’s another element moving forward to this weird new world of recruiting.

That involves you and it’s called NIL – Name/Image/Likeness.

The Spirit NIL has already signed up six key players to name-image-likeness deals and we are probably going to end up signing three or four more before all is said and done for this year.

Thanks to the publicity Ole Miss has gotten with their results in the transfer portal and the knowledge for future recruits to see a track record of Rebel players having competitive NIL deals, recruiting overall – out of the portal and even high school kids – should be more fruitful.

Through your participation in the NIL arena here and with the Jackson group The Grove Collective, Ole Miss football should be able to remain relevant moving forward. Don’t think the word isn’t out there that Isheem Young, J.J. Pegues, Deantre Prince, Jordan Watkins and Otis Reese have NIL deals through the Spirit LLC and more deals for more current Rebels through other avenues are forthcoming.

That’s due to the Rebel fans on here who put their trust in this NIL despite some completely misguided people telling everyone who would listen the Spirit NIL is “not legitimate.”

Which begs the question – why would any Rebel or anyone who makes their living off the Rebels try to discourage something designed and started for the sole purpose of legally rewarding Ole Miss players and helping shore up the roster? Beats me, but it seems sometimes we don’t work in lock step for the betterment of our school and our athletic programs, but that’s a story for another day.

Lane Kiffin and his staff did their jobs in spades.

They identified the players they needed to help the team flourish and they got them signed up. They deserve all of the credit.

Beyond that, our funds made sure the transfers were happy with their choices and we aren’t finished. We have the resources to help quite a few more players after they sign on to be Rebs.

Moving forward, we must keep these NILs funded. We must stay “in the game.” Personally, I’m not a fan of the way the NIL is a veritable uncontrollable free-for-all, but if you don’t throw your hat in the ring to compete in the marketplace, don’t complain when the product (the team) doesn’t perform due to lack of talent.

We’ve had a terrific start to this new environment both from a coaching standpoint and a fan participation standpoint.

Let’s keep it going.

Everyone can afford something and no amount is too small.

Give because for now, until there is some sort of regulation decided on, it’s “pay or perish.”

I prefer paying.