Exciting day for Ole Miss, a lot of good players coming here. Our best class and not just saying that. Of high school players. Product of lot of things. Coaches did good job. Glasscock put things together and also winning seasons. When these guys went into high school they’ve only seen us win. Third winningest program in SEC during that time. That’s critical for players to see that and see that a place wins. Positons of need and exciting players in good spot. Signed No. 1 player in the state for third year in a row.
This PC is about signing day and I understand the question and I’ve been vocal on social media with things but want to keep this about signing day and not steal from the players. It’s about them. Huge day for them.
We’ve been dominant in the Egg Bowls over their time in high school and programs have been extremely different. Not taking shots. Just true. Wins and losses and big differences and directions. And a different direction one program is headed in compared to the other.
Kids want chances to win more and Mississippi kids see they can do that here. Bolden has done a great job with in-state players. Look at someone like JJ Pegues. They see they can win in this state.
We need more numbers because of turnover that’s the way it is now and also we have a lot of seniors. Our system changes as well as anyone’s when it comes to how to put a roster together. The best way to put a roster together isn’t to go to the portal every year only. I’d love to be at a place to sign top five high school classes and it’s easier to retain and get some home discount to keep kids. That hasn’t been the case here. Maybe it will be one day with us here, but our best thing in the past was portal to put a roster together. We want quality high school kids. I hope we go win the postseason games and get to 10 wins. Look at the 10-win teams the last few years. It’s big brands and we’re there.
Caleb Cunningham is a great player and at one point looked like he was leaving Mississippi but got him back. It’s a position of need. High expectations. Great family.
We’re new age with salary cap and analytics and roster management. A lot of teams do the same thing which is sign so many and pay whatever. I’ve said for two years you have to be careful with high school QBs. Sometimes we’re on a guy and price gets too high. That’s the world with salary caps. When you put so much money into it, it’s a transfer position and a lot of guys don’t play early. You’ll see high price guys from a year ago go in the portal and you’ve blown that money. Another school wants to pay him that, then ok, it doesn’t fit the salary cap model we’re thinking about.
Price tags high school vs. portal varies by everything including position. Everyone is going to operate in this portal like revenue sharing is already here. You’re about to see outrageous prices because they believe they have this money coming in with the rev share even though it’s not here. It’s not like the NFL. But in college you’ll see someone pay a kid double because they just have to have them. Portal guys, in my opinion, are about to make an outrageous amount of money. Good for them.
I think rev share will be here in August. The money just won’t technically be available until July. It’s how people are operating but there’s a gap they have to fill in on the new price tag. Kids are about to be in the portal. Kids who aren’t even great players are about to get numbers we’ve never heard of.
We have percentages by position of the overall cap. Like the NFL. A lot of teams don’t do that and just go get a player, but we’re structured. We did the same thing with this HS class. There are players we were in good shape with that the number went too high. We look at the big picture. If you take it from there, it’s going to cost you somewhere else down the road. You’re not going to see all the kids to go top schools. It’ll be more spread out. School B that isn’t some name team will pay double for a kid here or there. There will be some landing spots that make you scratch your head. It’ll be money.
Mills-Knight is a big, physical back. We missed that this year and it was a big difference in critical situations. We didn’t fall forward well except for a DT.
When we got here we couldn’t do something like flip Devin Harper. It would have been a struggle with in-state kids but now we win here and you can make kids sure of you.
There’s not a cap just so we’re clear. Sure revenue sharing is a cap but there will be collectives and donors outside of that – like a notable one who got the best player in the country. Don’t think everyone is equal. It just sounds good to people.
We did well with linemen who are big with huge upside. More traditional bodies for the SEC. Undersized guys you can only take it so far.
In the SEC with multi and three loss teams fans have to get used to that happening. With Texas and OU and the portal and all the money and even plucking guys off good rosters. Georgia loses a great LB and they get backups plucked. You have to get used to teams having multiple losses in this conference. It’s so different than other conferences. Might as well be different leagues, not just conferences. SEC, few Big Ten and then everyone else. You’ll see it in the Draft. You tricked me into this. It’s a bad system. People in there in charge of it. Any of those coaches been down here and played in these places and have to go win there. Well these teams are .500 and then the three favorites all lose in 3 of the hardest stadiums to play in the nation. And it’s different than another conference where you go play those 5-5 teams. And you have to get your team up every week. It’s just different. That’s a great job. You got me. I would have done the same thing. (Talking to Neal)
This class doesn’t impact what we’ll do in the portal that much. But we’ll need to see what’s out there and what we lose. Get ready for giant free agency. Especially with kids who have been in college one year and have multi years remaining. Even kids happy with where they are, they are going in for the money.
The portal affects JUCO players and just not as many taken. You can go get college players you’ve seen play D1 or P5. For us we’ve had so many portal players, we want to focus on HS players. This is how you build a program longterm. You’ll see that. Over five years you’ll see you can build year over year with high school players.
Caleb has been on campus a lot and over time he’s seen us play. He sees Tre Harris leading the SEC in receiving yards. They can see themselves in that role. That stuff helps.
