🚨 STRUCTURE: Ole Miss Rebels Spring Practice ENFORCES New Era With Pete Golding, Deuce Knight #2

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Water usually wins. It rots wood and tears docks apart, unless you build with treks. Trek's marine grade decking is 100% submersible, built to resist rod and salt and fresh water. Water has met its match. Trek's decking. Visit treks.com slash docks. If you want spring break to feel like, and a moment away from the kids, to feel like, and your reward status to feel like, Thank you for being a Hilton Honors Gold member. Enjoy your daily food and beverage credit. And now that nightcap and the lounge can feel like, it matters where you stay. With Hilton Honors, earn the most valuable gold status faster, and unlock benefits at over 9,000 locations worldwide. Hilton, for this day. Spring practice is finally underway, so we have some actual real football to talk about.

1:04Potentially, we have the mayor of Corinth here. This is the Lockdown Ole Miss Podcast. You are a Lockdown Ole Miss. You're daily podcast on the Ole Miss Rebels. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, I'm Stephen Willis, and this episode is brought to you by Mazda. Like our players, we're driven by the details. Highlights make the real, but the work behind them, that's what makes them count. Stay tuned for this week's Moving the Game Forward, the all new Mazda CX-5, and more to every side of you. On today's show, Spring practice has kicked off finally. We had a little bit of helmets and shoulder pads, or helmets and shorts, work that was done Thursday in our Friday, I should say. We are going to talk about that. We're going to talk to the mayor of Corinth, Tom Banderford, about what's going on, and

2:04some rumors around what's happening in the peak-golding era. All of that's coming up, and more next, all right, timing. One thing that I've heard. We play with rumors on this show, so one of the rumors that has come out is this is a much more serious football practice situation. The peak-golding era is more serious. There's a dress code, they're very specific on what needs to be worn. There's instructions on things that, hey, you can have them, but you have them, you have to wear them, you can't just have them for decoration. It feels like the chaos that was the Lane Kiffon era, that is going to be going away. Yeah, Lane took a few things from Sabin, but he didn't take a lot as far as that goes, and people forget that Pete was Sabin's DC for quite some time, and he tried to get

3:04Pete to stay when he came to Ole Miss, so I think you're going to see more no BS type of head coaching, and the coaching staff will fall right into, the players will get used to it as well, and some business for them as well. Yeah, and Pete's a player's coach, so we're not just going to walk into Bud Kilmer, all of a sudden, as the coach of Ole Miss, so it's just going to be like things that influence winning, and if it doesn't, it goes away. If it does not help winning, it goes away, and having gloves attached to a belt that you have no intention of wearing, that does not influence winning. Oh, well, well, Winnie went to LSU anyway, but, oh, okay, go ahead. Winning, there's a big deal, and Winnie, but I was when you said, you know, all the extra flair, Winnie went to LSU, it was kind of the joke.

4:06Okay, all right, it's all good. Jersey number, Zep came out, John Tay Cook, number zero, Doos Knight, number two. Let's see, Horatio Fields, number 11, Darryl Gill, number 12, all of them will come out on the roster whenever they get released. It might be released by the time you were watching this, but as we're recording on Friday morning, while practice is going on, that is happening. I think the Doos Knight wearing number two, that was probably baked into a contract when he agreed to come, because it was a big problem for Doos Knight whenever he got to Auburn and found out that he was not going to get to wear number two. Yeah, well, you got to make them happy, and he's the future past Trinidad, so he's a dang good one too. And I'm looking forward to news coming out, the first media opportunity, I think is Tuesday,

5:06so we'll get to hear from Pete, we'll get to hear from John David Baker likely and be brown. I'm interested to see what the practice looks like with John David Baker at the head of the offense. I mean, structurally, it's going to be exactly the same thing that we've always seen. What I've been talking about in recent weeks, or what are his crutch plays going to be? When it gets down to 22 or 23 on the play clock and he needs to go, what is he going to call? Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing that, like you said, it's basically the same offense we've been running for five years with just a little bit of a twist, I'm sure. If you go back and look at his Eastern Carolina tapes, it's basically the same offenses we have, just with a lot better players than ECU at Ole Miss.

6:08Yeah, and it's also important to remember John David Baker was here in 2021, 2022, in 2023. He was the co-offensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023. The reason I bring that up is what people would say about learning the offense or something like that. That was three different offenses in three different seasons. It's going to be the exact same thing and based off of what we're used to seeing, but it was the Matt Corral system in 2021 under Jeff Levy. It was the 70% run with Quenchon Judkins and Zach Evans in 2022 and then you had the Jackson dark team that through nearly 60% of the time had Tray Harris and all those guys that went against the Penn State and anything lines. When you look at it, it's like, well, those are three different offenses. No, it's the same offense. It's just making it be built around what you do best and I don't see any reason why John David Baker is not going to do that.

7:10Exactly. It's like Bear Bryant said one time when they asked him about his offense. He said, buddy, you dance with the one that run you and that's basically, you've got to play to the talents on your team. Absolutely. When we come back, we will ask Tom specifically what he's looking forward to in this spring practice and what he's expecting over the next couple of weeks. We will talk to him all about that next. This is moving the game forward from Mazda. For those who know the score that never tells the whole story. This week's player of the game is Trinidad Chambus, who finished eight in the Heisman Trophy voting despite having a coach that absolutely refused to promote him for any awards. It is safe to say that Trinidad Chambus will enjoy it very much when he steps on practice

8:11fields this spring. There's more of these players than the highlights, the early mornings, the late night runs, the constantly showing up for their squad on and off the field. The all new Mazda CX-5 moves the same way with more space to connect, a bold new design, and more intuitive technology. So you can stay connected to the road. You position you play the all new Mazda CX-5, more to move every side of you. The tournament is here, one of the best times of the year, honestly, brackets, buzzer beaters, upsets, it's non-stop action from tip to the final cut down of the nets. Right now, Fando was giving new customers a way to stay in all the action all tournament long. Here's the best part. $300 back in bonus bet, every day for 10 days. That means you have chances to stay involved throughout the entire tournament. You can mix it up however you want, game picks, futures, or even same game parlays for

9:14bigger potential payouts. It's perfect for the tournament because every day there's something new, different matchups, new storylines, and more ways to get involved as the bracket unfolds. To visit fandole.com to sign up today, that's fandole.com to get in on the action. Hey, do us a favor, like, subscribe, and comment on this video, subscribe to the podcast on whichever audio podcast you're listening to and give it a five-star review. It costs absolutely nothing, but it keeps all of this free. Thank you for making Lockdown on me, Mr. First, listening today, and thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast in America. That's because of fans like you taking in content like this. And hey, get your first month of the every day or club for free. That's a free month when you use the promo code, March, M-A-R-C-H. You'll unlock ad free episodes and entry into our private listener group chat while hanging

10:14out daily. Click the link in the show notes below or go to locked on omis.supercast.com to claim your free month. All right, Tommy. With spring practice getting underway, I am really curious. He won Lacey's the best running back in college football, trying to dad chambles, best quarterback in college, a Lucas car and error, best kicker in college football, or the storylines for what we usually get in spring practice, they're not really there. So what will you actually be looking at over the next couple of weeks? First off, you know, I'm just an old school football fan of the lines, offensive line and defensive line. We've got the interior offensive line returning, but we're probably going to have two tackles that didn't play at Ole Miss last year. So I'm looking at how that works, how they protect the quarterback.

11:18And on defense, I just want to see how the plug-and-play kids are going to do, particularly purchase. And his name escapes me. I'm so sorry. The kid from Florida. Oh, Mackay Borough, I think this is name. Yeah, I want to see how he does as well. So the purchase is going to be wearing number three this year, apparently. Purchase is going to be, here's my first prediction. Purchase is going to make us forget about him on me, Ellen. That's my first prediction of the year. You know, and well, this is, okay, let's talk about this for a second, and it's going to come across as me being a hater, but whatever. But Prince Will, a mom, me, Ellen had nine and a half sacks, and everybody points out it's like, this is a player that had nine and a half sacks. This isn't like, Prince Lee, having ten and a half sacks in 12 games.

12:21Right. This is Prince Will having nine and a half sacks in 15 games. And you're not getting a nine and a half sack player with Prince Will, a mom, me, Ellen. You're getting a seven sack, a six and a half sack player. She just benefited from more games, including a game against the two-line Green Wave, that just doesn't have the athletes to match up. I don't think you can compare Prince Will to Prince Lee. I think Prince Lee is a better player, and I think once the NFL shakes out, that will be proven. I think Blake Purchase needs to shoot towards Prince Lee, a mom, me, Ellen, and not Prince Will, a mom, me, Ellen. Because if you've got the back end of that defense covered, and can turn them loose, him on Blake Purchase on one side, Santana Perkins on the other, it's going to be fun for all Miss fans of my opinion. Oh, yeah. No, you're right. You're right. The secondary is going to be so much better that that's going to help.

13:25And of course, the depth on the defensive line. We finally get the local kid for one year that went to Alabama and then went to Colorado. Hopefully, he'll be a good guy in this defense. You've got to remember that he was recruited by Pete Golding when Pete was at Alabama. So I think that that'll help. So the depth will help. Of course, I can't forget, you know, Eccles and Jam Brown, you know, all those guys, it's just going to be a wonderful defensive front. Yeah, I'm curious to see because everybody assumes that Borough is going to be the zero tech. He's going to be the Savion Harris replacement. I think that when Jehem Otis gets into the system that he's played before, he's going,

14:28well, I say that Borough came from the four to defense, which was run by Ron Roberts, which is essentially the same defense. So I don't know. I think it's good to have two Zebian Harrises going into the season as opposed to just having one. Maybe that. Oh, yeah. I can remember back when we would play Alabama in the, in the Sabin hey days, you know, a lot of times their starter would get worn out. And they bring somebody out that was just as good or better than their starter. So it's always good to have that depth, especially on the defensive line. Yeah, there was one game speaking, speaking of those Alabama teams and how you just start accumulating depth and the second team, you might think you're getting a break, but you're not really getting a break. You were playing against Alabama, maybe in 2017, possibly in 2018, it was in Tuscaloosa.

15:30It was like 31 to three at halftime. And you're like, good gosh, man, Alabama is just killing Ole Miss. This is in the heart of the Matt Luke era, the team's own probation. I mean, you might have had Taylor Poeke in linebacker, just for that reference. Second half came out. It was like, Alabama pulled their quarter back and was like, well, okay, we're not going to get smoked at least. I'm glad the backups in the game, let's try and get some positives from this game. And it was two of, that was my first introduction to two of, and they proceeded to score 35 points in the second half and looked like a machine doing it with the wide receivers they had. And it's like, good grief, man. And now Ole Miss being at the point where second string depth is that impressive is nuts. I mean, you sit there. Let's say that Trinidad Chamble is jumps out on LSU 35 to seven at halftime and you want

16:31to pull Trinidad out of the game or what's going on. Well, then you have a five star elite of in quarterback coming in that has Lamar Jackson level running ability coming, it's, Ole Miss fans need to take heart that Ole Miss is finally at the fact where there's no like breathers. It's not like, hey, there's 17 really good players on this team, but there's no depth. That's not the case anymore. Exactly. You know, NIL has been wonderful for Ole Miss. Wonderful. Yeah. And the blue ones, and this is absolutely, absolutely. You'll see people on articles all the time trying to get rid of collectives. You hear them? Get rid of collectives. And it's always the blue bloods doing that. It's because they do not like the New World Order where Indiana and Vandy and Ole Miss and Georgia Tech and all of these places can be good really quickly because it threatens

17:32what they do because they also are getting people off of their roster. I don't think everybody's saying that college football is broken, that's what you hear. This whole thing is broken. This isn't broken for Ole Miss. No, exactly. It's broken for the former blue bloods. Yeah. And you hit the nail on the head. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to get rid of that because they want to get back to, let me give you a large charger and 20 grand in a McDonald's bag. That's what they want to go back to. By the way, Tommy Tupperville having an opinion on the Transfer Portal Rooting College football is one of the most disingenuous, hypocritical things I've ever heard. I get that he's a politician and that's normal. But can we hear it from anybody else besides this guy? He was the original Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was. Yeah. Absolutely not. All right.

18:33When we come back, we will continue to talk about spring football, all of that coming up. Next, this is the Lockdown Ole Miss podcast. This episode is sponsored by Supply House. You wouldn't show up at a game day without a plan. So you wouldn't show up either at a job site without the right parts. That is why Supply House is starting, in your starting lineup is always the right call. Here are the stats. 300,000 plumbing, HVAC and electrical products, 500 tried and true brands and 90% of the country is in a one to two day delivery zone. Need a last minute coupling, a compressor, a press tool, they've got it and they'll get it to you quickly. They are clutch. And if you are pro in the trade, you can join the MVP of Rewards program and become a trade master. Pros get exclusive members only pricing, priority shipping, industry leading customer service.

19:33And best of all, it's absolutely free. Visit SupplyHouse.com slash TM to learn more about becoming a trade master. Use promo code SH5college for 5% off your first order. That's supplyhouse.com, promo code SH5college, supplyhouse, real people, real service. And what if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robinhood prediction markets. If you're not, it's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter most. Robinhood prediction markets can change the game. It's people moving the action. So in momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but I never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. And no longer just the spectator play by play, you decide trade every play with Robinhood.

20:37Now available across the US, download the Robinhood app right now to begin. Futures include swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. All right, we're going to talk about expectations before we get out of here. Really quick expectations of spring practice. Tommy, what do you want to see? Give me three things that you want to see accomplished in spring practice this year. Outside of the normal stuff. We're just talking about, we're not talking about the wins and losses in the fall. We're talking about the building blocks to get to the wins and losses in the fall. Yeah, I want to see how the, my number one thing is I want to see how the secondary gels. That's where we've seen a lot of change. Number two, you know, we got a whole lot of receivers in. I want to see how the transfer receivers do.

21:39Want to see how the tight ends do. You know, we lost a big, big player at tight end. And I want to see how the running game does minus, minus Lacey. I want to see how the number two through six do. I want to see if anyone separates himself during the spring. You know, the big thing for me is this is the first time in a few years where there hasn't been a spring portal after spring practice. So these guys now have a vested interest into doing the best they can to move up that ladder in the depth chart. Yeah, and you're at the point where not putting out depth charts, not doing that you're doing yourself the disservice of what's going on. So let's talk about those three things real quick before we get out of here. First of all, you mentioned depth in the secondary, your paying attention, what's going on. I think Joe Nelloguero, not Edwin Joseph is injured a little bit, so a little bit slow getting in.

22:44So when you look at the safety position on the back foot, I think a cornerback with Jay Crawford and with Antonio Cuyton, Sharif Denson corners fine. I think Jalen Braxton has a chance to move back and be a free safety if he's willing to do that. I agree with you a little bit on paper. The secondary is much better than it was a year ago. Yeah, I just want to see how how they all melt into the defensive plan. So to speak. All right, so the wide receivers, you mentioned a little bit early. And I think Duce Alexander is going to have one of the spots on lock this year. And I think John Tay Cook is the other one. Oh, yeah. There's a going to be a battle in my opinion for the big wide receiver. And it's going to be between Horatio Field, who is a really good player and Caleb Cunningham, who is one of the best wide receivers to come out of Mississippi in the last 10 or so years.

23:46I agree. I honestly think Caleb Cunningham is going to eventually win that battle. But here's the change that I see happening under Lane Kiffin, you know, not making fun of Lane or anything like that. Four to five wide receivers played over the course of a season. That's all you got you might you might assign 12 players in the transfer reporter, but five's going to get to play that the tempo dictates that. And also they just like having their dudes out there. I think more wide receivers are going to play this year. But with Ole Miss, it's not played, but played a play. It's going to be series to series. So other than Duce Alexander, who's going to be out there a lot, you're going to see an alternation of Horatio Fields and Caleb Cunningham in my opinion. You're going to see John Tay Cook and I think Dylan Offord has a chance to step up as well. But you also have Traylon Ray and I say a hard trip that's going to figure in the mix as well. The numbers are still there in the wide receiver room.

24:49There's just no going into spraying a tray Harris or Jonathan Mingo, that typical big wide receiver who's going to be the alpha of what's going on. And I think it's going to be Caleb Cunningham. Oh, I do too. I do too. I think Caleb Cunningham is going to have a bright future in the NFL. All right. And last of all, before we get out of here, you mentioned Kiwan Lazy. He's the number one, absolutely. But he got 300 carries a year ago. That's too many. He broke down against Miami in the last game of the year because of overuse in my opinion. Now, Ole Miss is responded by going out and getting Mackay Frazier. Josh Dye, JT Lindsey. They had Shikai Mills night already. I think McCaleb Thomas, the running back from Grenade, is in that room as well. And the freshmen that they signed this year. This room is as deep as any running back room that Ole Miss has ever had, period.

25:52None of those guys are going to be the starter. But I think you're going to see a knife fight developing for those 50-year-so carries that Kiwan Lazy is not going to get this year. Well, exactly. And I think part of the reason that Lazy stayed was he knew that they were going to take some of the load off of. And God bless his heart. He was wore out at the end of the year. Bum shoulder. He was just, you know, that was just too much. Yeah, and honestly, I think that's the reason he didn't go to LSU, even though the full court press has been on that kid from November on, like the Pat McAfee show they're making sure he was on the back. He was taking off his belt and doing all that. It was all intentional and part of recruiting him so he could develop some kind of a bond to get him to LSU. I don't think he won at 300 carries next year. I know later.

26:53Kiwan Lazy will be better with less carries than all around guy. But it'll be interesting to see who's going to be the Jerry and Ely in this 2021 backfield. Who's going to be the Snoop Conner in this 2021 backfield? That's something that I will be paying close attention to. And, you know, I'm thinking, you know, Frazier or Die. But I really like Shikai Mils Knight and JT Lindsay. So I'm not going to put them out of any competition either. Yeah, I do too. I really liked what I saw briefly from Shikai Mils Knight, his freshman year. I don't think he played enough. I think he counted as a red shirt. So that's a good thing. But yeah, that we've got so much to him. It's amazing for us older people that remember like you said, where we had SEC caliber kids

27:54for 17 or 18 of them. But after that, it was, you know, yeah, you just were going to wire down. They had to play the whole game. All right, Tom, what do you got going on this weekend, buddy? Oh, goodness. Just probably going to relax. Maybe watch some baseball hope we can take at least one from state. They sure do look good though. Yeah, they look real good. Hey, but they don't have Kevin McGonigal who had four hits in his debut with Detroit Tigers. So I'm happy about that. There you go, buddy. Yeah, yeah. That was a pretty good day. All right, Tom, we will talk to you next week, buddy. Take care. Yes, sir, Hottie Tottie. Thank you, Hottie Tottie. All right, thanks for tuning in today to the Lockdown Ole Miss podcast. We're going to continue to talk about Spring Ball and College Baseball all week. So make sure you subscribe and follow the show so you get all the latest episodes. We're on all the social channels as well. So check those out, including Blue Sky.

28:55If you never miss an episode, the every day or club is built for you. Get Lockdown Ole Miss ad free, plus members only discord access. And more head to lockdownalmiss.supercast.com to join the club. For those of you on video, we're going to send you on over to the first ever 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network YouTube channel and audio. Make sure you make your second listen Lockdown College Basketball. Hottie Tottie, everybody. Remember, we have an Oxford tour stop that's coming to Oxford April 19th through 25th. We will have dates and locations for live shows and meet and greets and all of that stuff. We look forward to seeing you there. But we will talk to you later. Hottie Tottie. Water usually wins. It rots wood in Teresdox apart. Unless you build with treks. Treks marine grade decking is 100% submersible. Built to resist rod and salt and fresh water. Water has met its match. Treks decking. Visit treks.com slash docs.

29:57You're juggling a lot. But you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When you want spring break to feel like in a moment away from the kids to feel like and your reward status to feel like. Thank you for being a Hilton Honors Gold member. Enjoy your daily food and beverage credit. And now that nightcap and the lounge can feel like it matters where you stay. With Hilton Honors, earn the most valuable gold status faster, and unlock benefits at over 9,000 locations worldwide. Hilton, for this day.