Ole Miss' JJ Pegues and Ladarius Tennison trying to make it a normal Auburn week

Ole Miss returns home this weekend to host Auburn but for a couple Rebel players it will be another unusual reunion.

This time last season junior defensive tackle JJ Pegues and sophomore safety Ladarius Tennison were playing for the Tigers and facing against the Rebels. Now, thanks to the creation of the transfer portal, both players are suiting up for No. 9 Ole Miss and on the other sideline.

College football is seeing this unique aspect of the portal presenting itself more often and it is the second occurrence for Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) in its first seven games.

Junior defensive end Jared Ivey experienced this in September when the Rebels faced Georgia Tech.

That was then and this is now for both Pegues and Tennison who are worried only about the challenge at hand, which is keeping the undefeated season going and getting past the first SEC West opponent.

“It’s just another week,” Tennison said on Monday. “Basically just keeping my head clear and just coming and playing my type of football.”

There has been a little bit of communication between Tennison and his former teammates but a lot of them are no longer there this season.

Tennison entered the portal and selected Ole Miss as his new home back in December once Auburn’s 2021 season concluded. After a lot of turnover within the Tigers staff it made Tennison consider a change himself.

“I was pretty close (with the Auburn staff) but, you know, just having different coaching changes two years in a row so it just felt like an opportunity for me to leave and change up my game,” Tennison said.

Related: How does Ole Miss decide its starting safeties? By a simple game of chance, of course

For Pegues it was a situation where the opportunity to play for Ole Miss and return home was hard to pass up.

As has been documented before, Pegues was set to sign with Auburn in December of 2019 days after Lane Kiffin was named the new head coach of Ole Miss. The two did not communicate much as Pegues focused on wrapping up his high school career and all-star game commitments.

“We just joke around about it. How I never game (Kiffin) an opportunity to recruit me,” Pegues said on Tuesday. “It was just really deep into my recruitment and I was going to the Mississippi-Alabama (all start football) game and I just really had my mind set on one thing. I didn’t want any other burdens. For a high schooler that’s a lot of deal with, with me going me going to the Mississippi-Alabama game. That was really important to me and I just locked in on that.”

Now, two years later Pegues did Kiffin the opportunity to recruit via the portal and the Oxford native came home to Ole Miss

On Saturday it will be Pegues lining up against an offensive line that were his teammates 365 days ago. But once the ball is kickedoff at 11 a.m. CT only one thing will matter to Pegues.

“Me and (Tennison) we talk about it. Just saying take it as a normal game,” Pegues said. “Take it as any other opponent but we also know we got love for them on the other side. But at the end of the day there’s only one goal – to get the win.

“You really just focus on where you’re at. Where your feet are at. Just being there, not having too many emotions. Once you make the decision to be in the portal and go somewhere else that’s your final decision. I still love them and they’re my friends. At the end of the day we’re playing them so they’re my enemy until the end of the game.”

Watch JJ Pegues full post-practice interview on Tuesday below, courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics.