LISTEN: What does Ole Miss football need at running back in 2024-25?

What does Ole Miss football need at running back in 2024-25?

I had some ideas in an all-new edition of ‘Talk of Champions,’ powered by RiverLand Roofing. Oh, and I’ve also got five fresh observations from Ole Miss preseason football camp.

Here’s how the room currently shapes up: Ulysses Bentley, IV, is the highest-graded returning running back in the SEC. Henry Parrish, Jr., was Miami’s lead rusher last season.

They’re near-identical in build and play style. Bentley was, inarguably, more efficient in Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss offense last season than Quinshon Judkins, who transferred to Ohio State. His NIL ask was sky-high and a moving target. Ole Miss finally got frustrated enough it decided not to meet the demand.

The freed-up money allowed the Rebels to flesh out their championship-contending roster even more.

Now, the question is if Kiffin and Co. did enough.

Rashad Amos had 13 touchdown for Miami of Ohio last season.

He’s 230-pounder in the mold of Snoop Conner and likely ticketed (certainly in the first few games) for short-yardage duties. Maybe he shows more. But Matt Jones, a former walk-on now wearing No. 0, is currently running ahead of him in practices.

Dominque Smith is another transfer, but from Georgia State. He’s seemingly a variant of Amos, though less explosive, and neither is the fleetest of foot to begin with. That’s fine because of how Ole Miss is constructed; Amos and Smith are redundancies on paper like Bentley and Parrish are redundancies. Ole Miss needs all of them, of course. But the upside of an every-down, Judkins-type isn’t on the roster, I don’t think. And that’s OK.

I trust Bentley, the highest-graded returning running back in the SEC. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry last season. I trust Parrish.

Bentley has made a point to show leadership, too. Ole Miss runs up the steps from the Manning Center to the practice fields every morning. There to greet and hype up each and every one of his teammates is Bentley. He hasn’t missed a day yet.

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