Recruiting Takeaways from Junior Day Event at Ole Miss; a look ahead to February Signing Day
OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss football closed this past weekend on a high note, pushing for the top 2023 uncommitted prospects as well as building relationships with future top athletes.
During this past weekend’s Junior Day events, the Rebels hosted top prospects from 2024, 2025, and 2026. Now, there will be a bit of a break in the action as Monday, January 30 marks the next dead period with high school recruits that will go through February 28th.
As for portal recruiting, that window of opportunity to enter the portal remains closed until May 1; however, players already in the portal are free to continue to actively look for a new home and to enroll.
While the visits may be officially closed for now, there are plenty of other ways to communicate leading up to the next National Signing day on Wednesday, February 1. Athletes and coaches are still allowed to communicate via phone, email, social media and other digital communication channels.
If you recall, Ole Miss signed 13 prospects during the early signing period and then received commitments from 14 transfer portal players.
So let’s take a look at some of the top remaining prospects on the Rebels’ radar and where things might stand with them.
Ole Miss made a last push for some of their uncommitted 2023 targets, including: DT Jonathan Davis (Lawrence County, MS); OT Chimdy Onoh (Dundalk, MD), EDGE DeeJay Holmes (Pahokee, FL) and EDGE Chamberlain Campbell (St. Petersburg, FL)
It can be hard to gauge where things stand with a recruit, even when all the signs and feedback are positive. This becomes even more complicated in the age of NIL.
Most analysts agree the Rebs are battling Mississippi State for Jonathan Davis, with some thinking he commits to wear the maroon and white. However, sources say Ole Miss feels last week’s visit went well with Davis and some believe they have a good shot at landing him.
As for Onoh, the Rebels are competing with Michigan State and Penn State. He wrapped up his visit to Oxford Sunday, so that means he saw the Rebels last.
We visited with Onoh and he told us what caught his eye in Oxford. “Something that stood out was learning how much the community thrives off the success of the football team,” he said.
As for the two EDGE players, Campbell and Holmes, sources indicate they feel good about the two ending up signing with the Rebels on Wednesday.
Hiring new defensive coordinator Pete Golding has already upped the game for Ole Miss recruiting. He has covered an immense amount of ground and helped the Rebs get on the radar with some of the top players.
It also seems as if Coach Kiffin and Ole Miss are working hard to attract some of Mississippi’s finest. It was great to see all the in-state talent this past weekend enjoying themselves in Oxford.
Kudos, also, to new offensive line coach John Garrison for helping renew the relationship for the Rebs with another top instate talent, Fulton (Miss.) offensive lineman Isaiah Autry. This will be one to watch this off season.
Autry also took a visit to Auburn where former Ole Miss o-line coach Jake Thornton is, but by all accounts he enjoyed meeting Coach Garrison and was impressed with what the Rebels’ coach had to say.
There are a lot of positive takeaways for Ole Miss from this last week and weekend. From talking with a few of the players who visited, it is clear there are a lot of special things going on in Oxford that are giving them a lot to think about!
Hotty Toddy!
Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo
Herring-Olvedo sees college football the way championship programs do—from inside the personnel room. Every evaluation, every roster move, every recruiting battle tells a bigger story about identity, culture, and how a program is built to win in December, not just July.
With more than 15 years covering the SEC and the national recruiting landscape, Herring-Olvedo has built a reputation as one of the sport’s most respected personnel-driven voices—blending film evaluation, roster construction, and long-term program vision through a true front-office lens. Her coverage of powerhouse brands like Ole Miss Rebels and Kentucky Wildcatshas consistently gone beyond headlines, focusing instead on the blueprint behind winning programs: development, fit, culture, and recruiting strategy.
That foundation was formed early at Brown University, where she worked in player personnel and recruiting while competing as a student-athlete. Inside those recruiting operations rooms, she learned how elite organizations are truly built—through relentless evaluation, relationship building, projection, and trust in the board. Those experiences shaped the way she studies the game today: part scout, part storyteller, part architect.
Her analysis and reporting have appeared across major platforms including ESPN, NFL coverage spaces, USA Today Sports, and Saturday Down South. She also brought her personnel-minded approach to the airwaves as an on-air analyst for the Wake Up 502 College Football Show on Big X Sports Radio 96.1, where she became known for combining film-room detail with a wider understanding of roster identity and program trajectory.
In 2025, covering the rise of Houston Cougars football under Willie Fritz reignited the part of the sport that first drew her into football—the culture, the edge, the belief that a roster can reshape an entire city. That inspiration led to the launch of Coogs 365 Sports, a platform built to cover Houston athletics through a true scouting and recruiting lens while connecting the emotion of the game to the heartbeat of H-Town.
Now, Herring-Olvedo returns to The Rebel Walk where with an even deeper perspective shaped by years inside recruiting circles, national SEC coverage, and hands-on evaluation experience. Her return brings a familiar voice back to Ole Miss coverage—but with an evolved lens rooted in roster architecture, player development, and the modern realities of building championship-caliber football in the NIL and portal era.
For Herring-Olvedo, recruiting has never been about stars beside a name. It is about identifying competitors, projecting growth, and building a locker room capable of sustaining success. Her philosophy mirrors the best front offices in football: stack traits, trust culture, and never stop building.
