COLUMN: The Ole Miss offense has an embarrassment of riches I’m not embarrassed about

The Ole Miss offense for 2024 is an embarrassment of riches.

Stacked, packed and ready to attack with more than its share of talented football players capable of winning lots of games if things go just semi-smoothly.

But guess what? I’m not embarrassed by the overabundance of talent at all. Not in the least. Not even a smidgen of discomfort for having a wealth of depth at every offensive position.

And I bet you old-timers, like me, know why.

There have been seasons at Ole Miss where even the first team was not very good, much less the second and third teams.

Many times, I have seen Rebel coaches having to play kids out of position just to field a decent team. Natural tight ends moving to guard or tackle. Wide receivers having to do tight end duty. Players pressed into quarterback duty that hadn’t played QB since high school. And so on.

We’ve paid our dues, so to speak, with seasons of not having nearly enough talent to compete in the rugged Southeastern Conference.

We’ve held our collective breath for years, hoping and praying for injury-free games. At the time, any injury would put the team in a dire situation.

We’ve seen coaches pull walk-ons out of the stands at halftime to suit up and play because there was nobody else available.

We’ve seen one or two key injuries capsize the whole season and send the Rebel boat to the bottom of the SEC standings.

So, no, I do not have any guilt or offer any apologies that Ole Miss has recruited and bought via The Grove Collective a team with intense battles for playing time at every single offensive position except quarterback where Jaxson Dart is the man, period.

And even at quarterback, if something – heaven forbid – happened with Dart, I would be just fine going into games with Walker Howard or Austin Simmons. One, because they are very talented and, two, because the players around them would be good enough to overcome any of their early jitters and buoy the team until they got their feet on the ground.

It does not bother me in the least that there are going to be very good players sitting on the bench most of the time. I feel for them individually, but this is what we’ve been facing for years with the Alabamas and LSUs and Auburns of our league.

Teams of that ilk have been “plug and play and move on” for more seasons than I care to think about. Get an injury? Plug in a player on the bench and never miss a beat because he’s just as good as the injured player and in some cases turns out to be better when he gains some experience.

Look at the Ole Miss offensive line for an example.

There are only five starting slots, so who sits among Jayden Williams, Jeremy James, Micah Pettus, Nate Kalepo, Julius Buelow, Caleb Warren, Diego Pounds, Gerquan Scott, Brycen Sanders and Eli Acker?

Every one of those guys are good enough to win with but historically only five of them will play the bulk of the snaps.

Tight end, wide receiver and running back are equally as deep and it doesn’t look like the Ole Miss coaches are finished adding even more talent. Out of nowhere, they added two wideouts just last week to a room that already has Tre Harris, Jordan Watkins, Juice Wells, Cayden Lee, Ayden Williams, Deion Smith and Devin Price.

Add Izaiah Hartrup and Jordan Smart to that list and the question pops up again – who is going to sit?

I’m aware all of these situations will take care of themselves with competition and practice results, but isn’t it nice – for once – to go into a season with zero major concerns at any offensive position?

An embarrassment of riches? I’m not embarrassed at all.

The worm has turned in favor of the Rebels and it will be a cold day in hell before I apologize for having too much talent.

Doesn’t it feel good?

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