For Ole Miss football, good chemistry and talented depth could be a winning combination in 2023
OXFORD, Miss. — In this age of college football, coaches like Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss know it is about more than having a few great players, it is about having a lot of great players.
And with high school signees, junior college transfers and of course the transfer portal, the Rebels’ roster is dotted with talent heading into the 2023 season.
One place where the talent is apparent is at the running back position. Ole Miss returns the Southeastern Conference’s leading rusher, Quinshon Judkins, returning along with Ulysses Bentley IV, but there are several newcomers joining the position group. Jam Griffin has joined the squad for his senior season from Oregon State as well as freshman Kedrick Reescano.
“We have a really large running back room,” Judkins said. “Definitely adding new guys in like Jam (Griffin) coming in late as he has in the process, you know getting him involved in the offense and trying to get him to learn everything and just really not just those guys but really the whole entire room just getting those guys involved as well. Just to learn the entire offense because some guys are new so they might not know the whole package.”
But the success of the backs will be dependent on the offensive line. Kiffin has added depth there as well.
“I do feel confident up there in a number of players (on the offensive line). And if we were playing today we’d be able to rotate some and not just play the same five, so I feel really good about that.”
Lane Kiffin on o-line depth
Kiffin said Monday he believes the Rebels have the most depth of any of his previous three Ole Miss teams.
“I think you do have probably better backups than we’ve had ever,” Kiffin said. “But again, this is not an individual sport and a lot of it’s how you play together and how you come together so that’s still to be seen.”
Coming together as a team is as important as building a roster with simply talented players.
Senior defensive end Cedric Johnson, who was recently presented with the Chucky Mullins Courage Award, believes the Ole Miss defenders have already come together as a unit.
“Speaking on the defensive side I believe we’re a lot more meshed together. I feel everybody’s bought in focusing on one goal and that’s to win every game trying to shut out every team. I feel we’re all meshed in as brothers as a brotherhood; I feel like we’re closer than ever before.”
Ole Miss DL Cedric Johnson
The Mobile, Ala., native also said the defense is ready to play against another team.
“The vibe is great, we’re energized throughout everything throughout practice, everybody just getting natural,” Johnson said. “We’re excited to go roll through the game full speed.”
As talented as the Rebels are, Kiffin knows there is no denying the importance of players being familiar with one another.
“I think they’ve just never played together,” Kiffin said. “I know every team’s like that every year but now more than ever especially defensively, but a lot of offensive guys too have not played together and you know that’s a lot. It’s a unique sport. This is not like a lot of other sports where you can just plug guys in and just go play.”
Kiffin elaborated about how difficult it is to take a bunch of new players and meld them together into a team.
“I mean you got offense, defense, special teams, and all the substitutions. And learning and inclusiveness that have to happen for units to play well, this is as you guys know not an individual sport, so there’ll be a lot to see, all these pieces together and see how they look.”
Lane Kiffin
Kiffin and Ole Miss fans get to see how they look Saturday when Mercer visits Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1 p..m., and it will be broadcast on ESPN+ and SECNetwork+.
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.
