Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi extended their reach outside the Magnolia State this season.
Only 38.3 percent (18 of 47) of the signees in MSU’s and Ole Miss’ recruiting classes came from the state of Mississippi.
Ole Miss, who finished with the nation’s sixth-best recruiting class according to 247Sports.com, went to the state of Georgia to grab the country’s best prospect in defensive end Robert Nkemdiche. Defensive line coach/recruiting coordinator for defense Chris Kiffin completed what he told reporters was a year-long recruiting project with the signing of Laremy Tunsil, of Florida, the nation’s best offensive tackle. Kiffin then went north to find the best wide receiver prospect in Laquon Treadwell, of Crete, Ill.
Coach Hugh Freeze and his staff generated momentum from those three five-star prospects. It trickled down to players like Nkemdiche, who admitted on social media he started going to other schools to recruit players to Ole Miss.
“I think any time you’re at a program like an Ole Miss or let’s say Texas Tech, you’re at some places you’ve got to get creative a little bit,” ESPN national recruiting director Tom Luginbill said. “You’ve got to lay down a blueprint, and you’re selling enthusiasm. You’re selling creativity. You’re selling youthfulness within your staff.”
In a media conference call Tuesday, Luginbill described Freeze’s recruiting success in such a short amount of time as unprecedented in Division I football.
“I think people are undervaluing the performance of Ole Miss on the field and how quickly that can turn around a perception of a program,” Luginbill said. “That’s what this is all about with these kids. How will the kids perceive the program? How do the kids perceive the coach and the direction that it’s going in? Are they buying into what’s being sold?”
Following a 7-6 season in which it defeated the University of Pittsburgh 38-17 in the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., Ole Miss landed five four-star players from outside the state of Mississippi. I’Tavius Mathers, Murfreesboro, Tenn., was the only player who signed a National Letter of Intent to play at Ole Miss in Houston Nutt’s last two seasons in Oxford.
“The leadership levels of the team will be tested,” former University of Oregon coach and ESPN college football analyst Mike Bellotti said Wednesday. “When you bring in great players that are better than the players you have, the seniors have to accept that to a degree and bring those people along. They have to realize that some of those young guys are going to play right now.”
For the first time in his five recruiting classes at MSU, Dan Mullen changed his tactics by utilizing assistant coaches Tim Brewster, David Turner, and Deshea Townsend to flip players from outside of the state of Mississippi who had given commitments to other schools. The strategy worked as late as Tuesday night when Fred Ross, a four-star wide receiver from Tyler, Texas, to flip from Oklahoma State to MSU. The signing of Ross gave Mullen his sixth wide receiver prospect in a 20-player class.
Only eight of the 20 players MSU signed are from Mississippi, marking the first time more than half of the prospects were from outside the state.
“I think all the other schools in the state are making a much more concerted effort to recruit the state, and I think that’s fantastic,” Mullen said. “It shows we’ve had success doing it, so I guess imitation’s a great form of flattery. I also think the success we’ve had the last couple of years has helped give us a lot better name recognition throughout really the Southeast.”
Instead of going for quantity, Mullen and his MSU staff concentrated on quality in Mississippi by signing five of the state’s top eight players, including Chris Jones, a five-star defensive end prospect from Houston (Miss.) High School. MSU followed Jones from a little-known three-star recruit to a player who emerged as the nation’s second-highest prospect.
“A lot of people say Chris Jones might be the No. 1 player in the country,” Mullen said. “Six months ago nobody even had him on a single one of any of your guys’ individual summer newspaper lists. Six months later and a lot of people think he might be the best player in the country. That’s the fun part of recruiting Mississippi.”
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