Lane Kiffin talks about current recruiting landscape and huge factors of transfer portal and NIL
OXFORD, Miss. – Wednesday Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin held his annual signing day press conference, but this one was unlike any before it. Given the questions he was asked by media, it took the Rebels’ coach over five minutes before he even got to mention a signee in his remarks.
That is a result of the transfer portal and the early signing period and all the myriad of questions that result from both.
Portal players do not sign letters of intent. They can announce their commitments at any time — it doesn’t necessarily have to be on national signing day, and it probably won’t be in the case of many of them.
As he addressed the media, Coach Kiffin’s Rebel team was already on the practice field preparing for a Dec. 28 date with Texas Tech in the TaxAct Texas Bowl. The timing of the early signing day shows how a coach must allocate his time between recruiting and getting his team ready for another game.
“There’s still work being done (on recruiting),” Kiffin said.
“I think this is a strange signing time, you know once we switched to the early (signing date) it’s not your full class with guys out there potentially to still sign later today or a normal signing day, plus with so many transfers and some already coming here, there’s a lot we’re still working on that we can’t even talk about (like) the ones coming here (who haven’t signed yet), so it’s a little bit strange.”
Lane Kiffin on the strangeness of early signing day and the portal
It is also strange a coach must in effect re-recruit his own team as some players have entered the transfer portal or could after the bowl game or could declare for the draft. That makes it even harder for Kiffin to know where he may need players on next season’s depth chart.
Kiffin: "It is a very strange time and you'll see more kids go into the portal after their (bowl) games. It's going to continue to move all over the place until they figure out a better way to do this."
— The Rebel Walk (@TheRebelWalk) December 21, 2022
“That is still evolving,” Kiffin said.
“You know, there’s players in the portal that may come back here, in our own portal, that are out there visiting places. There’s going to be some that maybe go in (the portal) after this game, and there’s still a couple of guys deciding whether to go to the NFL draft. So…I have no clue what those numbers are exactly to ever be able to say this is where we need two guys or three guys.”
Lane Kiffin on the complexities of recruiting
Kiffin discusses Ole Miss signees
After talking about players on his roster leaving or college players possibly transferring to Oxford, Kiffin did speak to the high school kids who signed with Ole Miss Wednesday.
“Excited about the guys we’ve already received their papers,” Kiffin said.
“I think there’s a lot of good players in there that our coaches did a good job, our entire program working really hard to put this together and to capitalize on the momentum on the field the last couple of years and so, keeping some high-impact recruits in the state of Mississippi home.”
Lane Kiffin on his early signing day Rebels
The top-ranked Ole Miss recruit who joined the Rebels Wednesday is Raleigh’s Suntarine Perkins, the No. 1 recruit in the state. His performance in the state title game in which he compiled 378 yards and four touchdowns to earn most valuable player honors impressed Kiffin. He also added an interception and scored on a two-point conversion.
“That was one of the most impressive games I’ve ever seen on film or in person. To do what he did on offense, defense, two-point plays, everything. Just a great athlete. Anytime you have a guy that’s probably a defensive player that can do those things on offense you know, usually those are you’re best defensive players because they have really good ball skills and awareness.”
Lane Kiffin on Suntarine Perkins
This signing day press conference seemed to lack a sense of closure, but that is because Kiffin knows Wednesday is just the first step in how the 2023 Rebels will look next fall.
“It’s kind of a weird press conference to have,” Kiffin remarked. “It’s so incomplete compared to what this will look like when we start spring ball, let alone camp.”
Ole Miss Signees
Click here to get bios and highlight films on all the Rebel signees.
Suntarine Perkins, LB
Ayden Williams, WR
Kedrick Reescano, RB
Jamarious Brown, EDGE
Braxton Myers, CB
Brycen Sanders, IOL
AJ Brown , S
Jayvontay Conner, TE
Daniel Demery, S
Ethan Fields, IOL
Skielar Mann, LB
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
