Ole Miss, as expected, is bringing Princely Umanmielen along slowly. But he feels good.
Sources insisted to the Ole Miss Spirit going into the season the Rebels were going to take it easy with Princely Umanmielen over the season’s first month.
They’ve done exactly that.
Umanmielen appeared in both of the first two games, but he was restricted — and will continue to be —to situational work as Ole Miss continues to bring him along slowly in his recovery from off-season labrum surgery. The Rebels open with their four non-conference games (Furman, MTSU, Wake Forest and Georgia Southern).
Despite his limited snaps, however, Umanmielen leads the team in quarterback hurries (4). He has a sack and two tackles to his credit as well. Umanmielen recorded the sack and a pair of QB hits against Middle Tennessee, a 52-3 Ole Miss win.
The Rebels improved to 2-0. They’ll next make their first road trip of the year on Saturday.
“Through these first two games, for the amount that I have gotten to play, I’ve felt great,” Umanmielen said Monday, after Ole Miss held its first practice of Wake Forest week. The Rebels and Demon Deacons kick off at 5:30 p.m. CT on The CW.
“It’s been a great experience playing at Ole Miss as an Ole Miss player. The last time I played here was when I was playing at Florida in 2020. The first game when I ran out of the tunnel the stadium was way louder than I expected.”
Ole Miss signed the nation’s No. 3 portal class in the offseason, according to On3.
Umanmielen, an EDGE from Florida, was one of two Top 10 transfers. The other was Walter Nolen, a defensive tackle from Texas A&M and the Rebels’ starter at three-technique in their 4-2-5 defense.
Umanmielen spent four seasons as a Gator. Pro Football Focus had Umanmielen pegged as the No. 7 returning EDGE in the country in the preseason.
Umanmielen last season paced Florida in sacks (7.0) and tackles for loss (11.5). He was fourth among all Power 5 EDGE rushers in pass-rush win rate (22.2 percent). Umanmielen had the second-most run-defense stops (42)
“It’s going to be a great measuring stick,” Umanmielen said of Wake Forest. “These first two weeks we’ve been playing (lesser) teams. It’s going to be a great test to see where we are.
“But I feel like week-in and week-out we go into the game with the same mentality no matter who we’re playing. We’re going to go into Wake Forest and try to dominate them just like we have these last two weeks.”
NOTES TO KNOW
Jaxson Dart leads all of college football and the SEC in passing (795 yards). … The Rebels have two receivers in the Top 10 in the SEC in receiving yards in Tre Harris (309), the conference leader, and Juice Wells (10, 148). Wells is a transfer from South Carolina. … Ole Miss is No. 1 in the country in yards per game, scoring offense, passing offense and plays over 20-plus yards. … Four Rebels made ‘Team of the Week’ for Pro Football Focus: Harris, Henry Parrish, Jr., Chris ‘Pooh’ Paul and Jared Ivey. Parrish, Jr., set new career-highs in touchdowns (4) and yards (165) against Middle Tennessee. Paul, a transfer linebacker from Arkansas, came off the bench and led Ole Miss in tackles against Furman. He had 1.5 tackles for loss in a start against Middle. He’s averaging 2.0 a game.
