Setting the Stage: Ole Miss likely to be without a lot of offensive firepower against Georgia Tech
Lane Kiffin said Thursday star Ole Miss wide receiver Tre Harris was trending in the right direction in his return from a knee injury suffered at Tulane.
Even so, Harris, with the Rebels a sleep away from kickoff against Georgia Tech, continues to trend in the direction of not playing, as further evidenced by a report from the Ole Miss Spirit’s Chuck Rounsaville on Friday.
Rounsaville is hearing Harris, as well as tight end Caden Prieskorn and wide receiver Zakhari Franklin, will not play against the Yellowjackets. Even more, second-year running back Quinshon Judkins has sore ribs and is questionable.
Neither Prieskorn nor Franklin have appeared in a game for the Rebels this season. They each transferred in from other schools in the off-season, just as Harris did, but from Louisiana Tech. Prieskorn came over from Memphis and Franklin from UTSA.
“(Tulane) got challenging,” fourth-year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said this week. “You think about it, you’re playing without a tight end that had come in as arguably one of your most important players on your entire team. Everything he did was impactful, especially in the run game. He was huge in the run game.
“And then Tre, who had five touchdowns through a game and one drive, goes out. So, you know, guys are gonna have to step up.”
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Ole Miss landed UTEP transfer WR Zakhari Franklin over the summer
Franklin has been out following a knee scope in August to fix a preexisting injury.
Harris, meanwhile, is dealing with an MCL issue. Specifics are, of course, iffy, as Kiffin and the team, in general, do not publicly discuss injuries.
Judkins last season set a new single-season Ole Miss record for rushing yards. He’s managed not even 200 combined rushing yards in back-to-back wins over Mercer and Tulane to open 2023-24. A Rebel offensive line returning four starters has struggled to open running lanes and/or protect quarterback Jaxson Dart.
Dart, however, has still found a way to have the highest passer rating in the SEC.
He’s third-best nationally in efficiency (206.57) behind Caleb Williams (Southern Cal) and Sam Hartman (Notre Dame). Williams was last year’s Heisman winner. Dart has 17 completions of 20-plus yards on the year, which leads all quarterbacks in college football.
The Rebel offense, as a team, has 21 such passes.
And while he’ll be down weapons against Tech, Dart still leads a Rebel offense first in the SEC in scoring (55 points per game).
Healthy options for Dart include running backs Ulysses Bentley, lV, and Jam Griffin, tight ends Kyirin Heath and Michael Trigg, and wide receivers Dayton Wade, Jordan Watkins, Ayden Williams, Cayden Lee and Jalen Knox.
Griffin (Oregon State) is a first-year, if veteran, transfer. Williams and Lee are true freshmen. Williams was a four-star prospect and the No. 2 recruit in the state of Mississippi in the 2023 class.
“Obviously we lost some firepower with outside receivers last year. (Jonathan Mingo and Malik Heath) are both in the NFL now, and these guys have done a really good job,” Kiffin said, when asked on RebTalk specifically of Wade and Watkins.
“Tre obviously got banged up. We’d scored 80 points in one game and one series with him. That’s pretty good. He had eight catches for five touchdowns. That’s got to be a record.”
Ole Miss has the 13th-best odds (8.4 percent) in the country to make the College Football Playoff, according to ESPN FPI. Kickoff against Georgia Tech is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
“Hope we have a really cool environment and the fans come out,” Kiffin said. “I really commend the student section for our last game; I think they said that’s the highest number of students we’ve had at a game, including Alabama a year ago. I commend them, especially the freshman class. That’s really cool.
“Hopefully the rest of our fans can show up, too.”
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