Saturday Practice Report: Ole Miss Depth is Showing on Both Sides of the Ball

OXFORD, Miss. –  Ole Miss Football took the field this morning for another spring practice, and today it was the defense who looked particularly connected. It was a productive day of work for both sides of the ball, and with that being said, let’s get into what we saw.

Linebackers

Pete Golding has assembled a dangerous linebacker room consisting of physical, fast, and experienced players. Today we saw TJ Dudley, Khari Coleman, Chris “Pooh” Paul, and Tyler Banks working with the defensive backs on different coverages and rotations.

Suntarine Perkins continued to work off the edge in live drills, and today he looked absolutely relentless, bringing pressure to Jaxson Dart on every snap. Perkins’ length, paired with his speed, has proven why he has the potential to be such an effective player.

One on One’s 

Wide receiver Cayden Lee and cornerback Chris Graves were called upon to face off in today’s one-on-one, which proved to be an awesome matchup. Lee took the first round with a slant route across the middle, but in round two, Graves broke up a fade pass to the corner of the end zone, tying the series.

In the final round, Lee’s quickness allowed him to again catch a slant over the middle of the field. Nonetheless, both players did a fantastic job against each other.

Offense

As always, the Rebel quarterbacks look incredibly talented — and deep. In addition to Jaxson Dart, Walker Howard and Austin Simmons, whose throws have looked strong, true freshmen Deljay Bailey and A.J. Maddox have also looked good. Truly, Ole Miss must have the best QB room in the country.

We all know the names of the star receivers the Rebels have — Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins, Juice Wells, Ayden Williams and Cayden Lee to name a few. While all the wide receivers today were efficient in their routes, Devin Price and Joshua Aka stood out to me, doing a really nice job making consistent catches and running routes to perfection.

Price recently transferred from Florida Atlantic and has picked up the playbook promptly, while Aka, who transferred from East Mississippi Community College in 2022, has shown his reliability day in and day out for these quarterbacks.

Up front, things looked very similar in live drills, with Jayden Williams working at left tackle, Nate Kalepo at left guard, Caleb Warren at center, Jeremy James at right guard, and Julius Buelow at right tackle.

As we always say, depth is abundant on this offensive line, and the competition for a starting spot will likely go well into fall camp.

In one week, on April 13, Ole Miss will head to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the Grove Bowl Games.  But until then, be sure to stay tuned with The Rebel Walk for football updates and more!

(Feature image credit: Zach Moreth, The Rebel Walk)