Lane Kiffin Highlights the Rebels’ 2025 Early Signees, His ‘Best Signing Class’ at Ole Miss
OXFORD, Miss. – Head coach Lane Kiffin took the podium Wednesday afternoon to address the media about his Early Signing Day class, which appears to be very strong in many of the Rebels’ areas of need. Ole Miss signed every verbal commit they expected, with the exception of one who is signing on Friday, and received an additional commit from Winston Watkins Jr.
Watkins is a 4-star wide receiver from Venice, Florida, who chose Ole Miss over offers from Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, A&M, Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, Miami, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and more.
Having signed seven players from the state of Mississipp, Kiffin spoke on how his staff has been so successful recruiting in the ‘Sip.
“I think there’s a number of factors. I think that we’ve been dominant over their (recruits’) time in the Egg Bowls. The programs have been extremely different. I’m not taking any shots, but the wins and losses of the programs are dramatically different. I think they (recruits) see that, and it knocks out State for the kids, and then I think more kids stay here where before they were leaving because they felt like they had to go to LSU, Alabama, or Auburn because they wanted a chance to win more… now they’ve seen you can do that here.“
– Kiffin on the success of in-state recruiting
Arguably the most notable of those in-state players is Caleb Cunningham, a five-star wide receiver from Weir, Mississippi, who has a chance to make a day-one impact in Oxford. Cunningham, a former commit to Alabama, is a 6-foot-3 athletic freak who already has the speed, size, and physicality of an SEC receiver. Understanding his talent, Kiffin spoke highly of his future receiver.
Five-star WR Caleb Cunningham has signed with Ole Miss🦈https://t.co/wG5rwf8bwg pic.twitter.com/3Xno24iSsj
— On3 Recruits (@On3Recruits) December 4, 2024
“He could be huge, that was really big. He’s a great player, and at one point it looked like he was leaving the state, and we got him back. great kid, great family, and a position of need losing so much there, so we have very high expectations for him.”
– Kiffin on Caleb Cunningham
Staying on the offensive side of the ball, Ole Miss also landed running back Shekai Mills-Knight out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Listed at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, Mills-Knight is someone who could see playing time as a freshman, much as Quinshon Judkins did his first season. In describing Mills-Knight’s potential, Lane commented that Shekai brings a level of physicality that was missing from this year’s running back room.
RECRUITING: Shekai Mills-Knight is officially an Ole Miss Rebel.
He is a difference maker and will be an instant impact player.
🎥: @SCNext | h/t: @Zach_Berry pic.twitter.com/gLpxeJrJjX
— Brad Logan (@BradLoganCOTE) December 4, 2024
“I think he’s got tremendous upside, really big, physical running back, which we missed this year not having, and I think that it was a big difference in a lot of critical situations where big guys fall forward and make some extra yards, and obviously we had to go to a defensive tackle for a lot of those situations. We have high hopes for him.“
– Kiffin on Shekai Mills-Knight
On top of skill player signees, Kiffin also reeled in Devin Harper, TJ Hedrick, and Kenneth Boston, three offensive linemen with an average height of 6-feet-7 inches and weight of roughly 310 pounds. With the Rebels’ offensive line struggling at times to protect Jaxson Dart and create gaps for running backs, Coach Kiffin has earned an abundance of respect for the future glass-eaters of his team.
“I think that these are some really big linemen that have huge upside, more traditional, big-time SEC-type linemen, so that’s really good because when you have undersized guys, you can only take them so far.“
– Kiffin on the 2025 offensive lineman
To wrap up, Lane discussed the importance of his 2025 class and why searching for talent in the portal every season is not a sustainable method of success in this era of college football.
“I think you have to have numbers because of turnover now. I think you’re going to see massive roster turnovers around the country, and we had a lot of seniors also… the best way to build a roster long-term is not to go to the portal every year. I’d love to be at a place where you can sign top-five high school classes every single year, and then it’s a lot easier to retain them… that’s not been able to be the case, so we had to go address needs in the portal, and that was the only way to continue this success.“
– Kiffin on the importance of this year’s 2025 class
What’s Next?
Early signing period continues through Friday, December 6 at midnight. Then, the Transfer Portal window opens December 9. So stay tuned to The Rebel Walk for more signing day news, transfer portal updates, and bowl game predictions! As always, Hotty Toddy and Go, Rebs!
(Feature image credit: Karis Chambliss, The Rebel Walk)
