Exciting day between practicing for a major bowl and NSD on the same. Excited for so many players who achieve their dream of a college decision. Special day for their families. Credit to our whole building for these portal/high school/JUCO players. Grateful and it takes a lot of people. On paper it’s easily our best class since we’ve been here. Thanks to Walker and the fans and the GC. I feel like the Packers of college football. Our fans own our team and they’ve done a great job. Highest attendance in history of the school. I feel there’s not as much buzz today with the system the NCAA has created. 75 percent of these kids nationally will end up in portal at some point. That’s unfortunate about the system but is what it is. It’s a poor system on all fronts. We haven’t finished our season and we’re in free agency. Free agency doesn’t happen before the NFL Playoffs. It’s not complaining. We’ll maximize around the rules.
Winning has helped a lot. NIL is important in this. People used to say they weren’t but they are. But winning matters. Third most wins behind UGA and Bama. We show kids you can come here and win. I go in living rooms and college campuses and it’s a different feeling walking in with Ole Miss on. Different interest level and acceptance.
Great to get guys in our system with the early enrollees. A lot are portal guys who will play significantly. Especially defensively.
We sat in a PC and this started in Athens. You sensed my disappointment and we have to do everything in our power to change how we look as a team and defensively. We may not be good , but we’ll look a lot better in our uniforms. We signed significant players in the SEC. We’ve seen them play against these teams. Warmups didn’t look good that night. It’s not a shot at our players. It’s just size. We haven’t been a big team. We’re a short team. Length matters at times. I love our players and how we play. We have improved with significant players especially on defense. We’ll compete with a chance to be an elite defense in the SEC.
We handle the high school recruiting plan with the portal being a thing. Create a new box and we really do that. Maybe one day I’ll explain it but I’m not giving it away. We break down the high school players and how they play and think and that’s more important now knowing the portal is there and collectives giving money out to players who will be against you next year.
Pete has always been a relentless recruiter. Alabama always recruits at a high level and it’s easy to recruit there but Pete is unbelievable improving us on the field and now in recruiting. His relationships went a long way. We’ll look really good coming out of the tunnel.
Some kind of joked like it’s the last dance. A lot of guys wouldn’t have come back and just tried the draft but they stayed. It’s a product of a lot. They have a really cool culture and locker room. They recruited each other to come back and most did. We also had very few kids who play get into the portal. They stay and it’s a credit to our coaches and players.
We had a nice run with in-state defensive linemen and that was the best position in Mississippi since we’ve been here. It also helps with the two SEC teams in the state and one team is going one way and the other one is going the other.
TJ Dudley can play in the Peach Bowl. That’s neat for him. I think it should have been that way anyway. They changed the rule once the rosters got smaller where you can’t burn a redshirt in a bowl game. It doesn’t count toward eligibility. It’s a good ruling in that way.
Finebaum got mad at me when I said football is a disaster in this one area, not all areas, just this area with the portal and NIL and the lack of rules governing it. If you didn’t think that’s a disaster, get ready for one with multi-time transfers. If that’s a thing, every year you can get in the portal and just see. And the issue is halfway through the year, they start checking out on you. And they don’t care at all about players and graduating. At all. We have guys six units shy of graduating transferring. The NCAA doesn’t care about that. You need a system to sign them to multi-year transfers.
This date for NSD isn’t ideal because next year 12 teams are playoff preparing for literally today while doing signing day. It’s been talked about doing it earlier so it’s at least done. And 90 percent of kids knew were they were going. They were no secrets today.
