OXFORD — If you thought Ole Miss’ receiving room was good last year, just wait until you see the 2024 version.
The Rebels boasted one of the deepest receiver rooms in college football a season ago. The wide receiver trio of Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins and Dayton Wade each had at least 700 receiving yards — one of just three teams in the regular season who could boast that feat. Harris and Watkins each opted to return for their final seasons with senior quarterback Jaxson Dart. Add in the return of senior tight end Caden Prieskorn, the offensive MVP of the Peach Bowl and second-team All-SEC pick in 2023, and Ole Miss already figured to have one of the better receiving corps in college football this year without any additions.
Then the rich got richer.
Ole Miss added former first-team All-SEC receiver Antwane Wells Jr. from South Carolina through the transfer portal. Wells is ranked the No. 26 player in the transfer portal by 247Sports; in 2022 he had 928 yards and six touchdowns for the Gamecocks but missed most of last season with a foot injury. He did not get any work during the spring but practiced during the first two days of fall camp in the portions open to the media. Ole Miss also added Deion Smith, the top junior college player in the country and a former four-star recruit and LSU product. Smith, a 6-foot-4 Jackson native who had 1,063 yards and 12 touchdowns at Holmes Community College last season, was not with the team during the spring but confirmed a recent report from 247Sports via social media that he would be joining the team soon. Add in Virginia Tech four-star transfer tight end Dae’Quan Wright and young, talented receivers like Ayden Williams, Cayden Lee and Noreel White, and the Rebels have an embarrassment of riches for Dart to throw to.
All that talent can be a double-edged sword, however, and it’s something the Rebels’ coaching staff focuses on: Reminding players that there’s a greater goal than personal accolades.
“You also have to spend a lot of time getting them to understand the goal of winning,” Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said. “And that’s got to override the individual numbers at times, because there’s not a way where all these guys — tight end, receiver — they’re all going to have these gigantic, statistical years. It just can’t happen. (There’s) not enough balls. So, we spend a lot of time on that.”
The different members of the wide receiver room bring something different to the table. Harris, for instance, is a preseason first-team All-SEC pick and was tied for the eighth-best receiving grade in college football (with Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr, no less) during the 2023 season, per Pro Football Focus, and led the team with 985 yards and eight touchdowns. He is surehanded — he was credited with just three drops — and able to make difficult catches, as evidence by his 10 contested receptions. Watkins lined up in the slot 84% of the time and had just two drops himself. He has been one of Dart’s most reliable receivers the last two seasons.
Wells, who goes by the name “Juice,” is an “explosive, explosive, explosive receiver” and is a “super aggressive pass catcher” who “ can make something happen in open space,” according to Harris. Per PFF, 37% of Wells’ targets came behind the line of scrimmage in 2022 while 26.1% came between 10 and 19 yards. He was tied for 14th nationally in receiving grade on deep targets (20 or more yards), too.
It really is a case of picking your poison.
“He plays like he’s 6-foot-5, 200-something pounds,” Watkins said of Wells, who is listed at 6-feet. “Also, he can run. So, it brings a bigtime threat to the defense because you have a guy like Tre, who is probably the best one-on-one matchup in the country. And then you have a guy like me who’s able to finesse his way around a zone or also can take the top off the defense. And then you have a guy like Juice who can also do the same thing, and he’s really big and physical. … We all piggyback off each other. So, it’s going to be really scary just to go out there and play against other defenses.”
Harris and his fellow receivers have professional aspirations. Gaudy numbers, of course, can help catch the attention of teams. But in Ole Miss’ receiving room, there is an understanding that showing unselfishness on the path to winning means just as much, if not more, to NFL decision-makers, Harris said.
Showing you can be more than just a featured pass catcher matters. Harris is looking forward to blocking for Wells.
“One thing that our receiver room does a really, really good job of is being selfless. If a guy’s having a hot game, he has a hot hand, we’re going to feed him the ball … and make sure he stays hot,” Harris said. “ … For us, we all realized that, of course you want to have numbers, you want to have the best stats possible. But if you’re winning — if you’re winning a lot — and you’re winning big-time games, those scouts see that. … We all realize, yeah, we want to get to the NFL. But winning is what really, really shows NFL scouts, ‘Hey, this is a good player right here.’”
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
