Countdown To Kickoff: A visit with Ole Miss wide receiver Dayton Wade

“I would say when I first came, considering the fact that I transferred from a smaller program, there was just a lot more accessibility to things. The nutrition was different, the training staff was different, the lifting was different, the conditioning was different, the workload was different. I can definitely feel that in my play, it definitely translated and made me a better player. So me coming into it was great for me. And Lane Kiffin having the offensive mindset that he has, it made understanding the game better and made me more of a complete player.”

“We’re really excited, it’s definitely going to give us some mojo, ’cause everybody gets excited when you have something new, we hadn’t had a locker room since the spring… Now, nobody is really going to want to leave the facility, I know for sure I’m going to be in there a lot. I like to play video games, so I’m going to be in there just chilling.”

“With recruiting, it’s going to make it ten times better. I actually have personal friends who are still in high school that are still on their recruiting journey and they’re hitting me up about the facility, asking me how is it, what’s it like, they’re more hyped than me. So that’s really a big thing. You see we got that quarterback that enrolled early from high school, and I’m pretty sure the facility had a big influence. It definitely plays a big part. Everybody likes something that’s attractive.“

“He treats you like a professional. You say you want to be a pro, and he’s going to treat you like a pro. So if you’re not acting like a pro, he’s going to tell you you’re not acting like a pro. If you’re acting like a pro, he’s going to tell you to keep it up, or he might not even say anything, but later down the line he might come up and say ‘You think I forgot, no I’ve been noticing.’ He treats us like grown men. Everything is really pro mindset and we stand behind that. There’s no secret or anything to him, we just know. Energy is the theme, so he just gives off that vibe. When we’re here, it’s business. We’re acting like pros and we’re here to be pros. You win off of knowledge and execution, and that all comes with being a pro.”

“He’ll chop it up with you, he’s real funny. He’s got a very different character. You’re not not going to come across too many like him. His sense of humor is very unique. He says some pretty funny stuff. He’s a cool dude.”

“I can’t speak for everybody. Obviously, some people were kind of in a panicked frenzy, but at the end of the day business is business. It’s 2023, the game is no secret, we pretty much know how it goes when it comes to the money, if someone wants to leave a particular legacy, things of that nature. For me, it was just another day. I lose my coach or I keep my coach. Of course I wanted him, but I was still in the middle of the season, I gotta finish the season; I can’t worry about that. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. So that’s how I took it. In the locker room, for the most part, we were just kinda like ‘whatever.’ I feel personally like Kiffin is the kind of guy who would actually tell you ‘I’m out.’ He wouldn’t let the media know before he’d let us know. So I never really believed it.“

“I just go day by day. I have personal goals as a receiver that I want to be personally and as a player I want to be. So to do certain things, you have to accomplish certain feats. I don’t want to sit here and say I’ve been doing all this extra work, because I’ve been working. I didn’t start doing anything special just because people are leaving and it’s time for me to step up for a role, because for me, I feel like I’ve been ready. So the conversation we’re having is just go get it, that’s all we’re worried about. It’s almost time to put the ball down, so that’s when we’re going to see who has the workload, who he’s going to depend on.”

“Like you said, it’s a loaded quarterback room, so we’re seeing flashes from everybody. The way we are as a team, we don’t really say things like ‘you’re a starter, you’re a starter.’ One thing you know about Lane Kiffin is that he’s going to play the best man. So whoever is performing the best, whoever can control the offense, whoever the team is more comfortable behind late in the game, that’s more than likely who we’re going to go with, and we’re fixing to find that out during camp these next two-and-a-half, three weeks.“

“We as a team love Q. I’m excited to block for him, I can’t wait to see him run. He’s my teammate and I’m backing him, and I’m calling it now, he’s going to have a better season than last year because we as receivers are going to open up the run game too, just by us making the plays that we’re going to make. I’m excited to see all this come into play.”

“At Georgia. It’s always great to get to play the defending champs, and with the way the schedule is set up, we could play them twice potentially, if they win the east and we win the west. We play at Alabama for our first SEC game and then LSU right after that. There’s pros and cons to having a tough schedule, but I feel like our tough schedule is going to benefit us because we’re going to feel that intensity, so that’s going to benefit us between the hedges. I’m really looking forward to all the SEC games. The Egg Bowl, you know we’ve got to get back at them, but at Georgia, they’re the defending champs and I’m from Georgia. My family will get to see me play; I can’t wait for that.“

“Even though we’re at different schools now, we’re still cool and all, but we told him [Austin Keys] what we’ve got for him. And we’re going to be in their crib.“