Ole Miss Landshark Defense Adds Size, Strength to the Front Seven in 2024
OXFORD, Miss. — After a disturbing loss to top-ranked Georgia last season, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said the Rebels needed to get bigger and better on the defensive front.
After just a few spring practices, it appears the reviews are in — Ole Miss is both bigger and better in its front seven.
The Rebels return players like J.J. Pegues, Zxavian Harris and Jared Ivey combined with transfers like Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen and Pooh Paul, along with true freshman Kam Franklin, and the 2024 defense could be very, very good.
They will certainly be bigger and stronger among the front seven.
“A big thing (we said) was, ‘Let’s go out in the portal and get guys,’ because we’ve really had some good players here, but really look at them and they’ve been a little undersized or maybe a little slow. They weren’t high draft picks, but they’ve done a really good job and our coaches have done a good job with them,” Kiffin said earlier this week.
“Watching (defensive lineman) Princely (Umanmielen) really was like here’s somebody with really ideal size and length and speed to be a really good player. One that you don’t have to say, ‘Okay, well, here’s how we’d use somebody you know to kind of hide some of the deficiencies,’ which we’ve done a lot of here, so it’s really good to have him and you can see it out there.”
Lane Kiffin
Pegues, an Oxford native and a veteran defensive lineman for the Rebels pointed to another advantage to the newcomers.
“They’ve really just added more information in the (position) room,” Pegues explained.
“We got a lot of young guys and we got a lot of vets, but just them knowing and being able to come over from another team and knowing different techniques and different languages, that helped me…and it just really ups our game and makes us play at a higher level just because we got other guys that played at a higher level at other schools.”
JJ Pegues
The new-look front seven should take pressure off the secondary. That is something one defensive back has already noticed during the early days of spring practice.
“It’s pretty crazy because you know you can’t sack the quarterback, but pretty much every play they’re yelling out ‘sack,’” said safety John Saunders, Jr.
“So they’re doing something right up there. I’m just covering my man but every play I’m hearing, ‘sack, sack’.” It’s crazy, like they’re just back there like that. Like when we get in this one personnel group, I was looking at them and like man, this looks like a created team in the front. That front seven looks phenomenal. The D line looks beautiful man, I’m excited to see for real like how it all plays out.”
John Saunders, Jr.
Even the Rebels’ offensive line has noticed the change.
“It’s a lot of fun, they’re really, really talented,” offensive lineman Jeremy James said. “It’s making us go to work every day, and, yeah, it’s a lot of fun, they’re really, really good players.”
Ole Miss fans’ first opportunity to see the new look front seven comes April 13 with the Grove Bowl in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
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.
