COLUMN: With Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and his staff, sometimes I need to pinch myself

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s real.

“It” is the roster construction that goes on year-round, it seems, in football under Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and his staff.

Coaches call athletes who are dynamic movement-wise and explosion-wise “quick twitch.”

I think this coaching staff is also quick twitch. They see a situation that need addressing on their roster and pounce on it like a cougar on a lame deer – quick, precise and without hesitation.

This is just one of the examples that have arisen since the 2023 season ended. There are many.

Last week, Michigan transfer cornerback Amorion Walker decided he wanted to go back to the Wolverines and, we were told, wanted to try being a wide receiver.

Just a few days later and the Ole Miss coaches had located, wined, dined and signed, figuratively, Houston cornerback Isaiah Hamilton to replace Walker.

Poof. Just like that – Walker is relegated to a memory, his replacement is on the way and guess what? It says here Hamilton is not only a replacement, but an upgrade. Why? Because he’s got cornerback chops, cornerback experience, and healthy cornerback stats to back up his commitment.

And even though Walker is considered a “freak of an athlete,” he didn’t do much to move the needle as a cornerback in the spring drills under new cornerback coach Bryan “B” Brown.

Besides being in a black jersey most of spring – and now that he has transferred, we wonder if he was injured or had already decided to catch the next jet back to Michigan – Walker was not able to learn much technique or turn Brown’s head very much.

There is no question the top three corners coming out of spring didn’t include Walker. They were Alabama transfer Trey Amos, Ole Miss holdover Chris Graves and Tennessee transfer Brandon Turnage. Walker was number four, but it was obvious Brown was working all the corners on both sides – boundary and field – and it was obvious “B” was going to be in the market for another corner in the portal in April-May even if Walker had stayed.

This is not intended to be a knock toward Amorion Walker. We’re sure if his heart had been tuned into being a Rebel, which it apparently was not, he would have come around and become a good corner under Brown’s tutelage.

No, this is a testament to the effectiveness of Kiffin, his staff and The Grove Collective.

This is not new news or some kind of scoop for you, valued reader, but it is an affirmation that Kiffin has a quality plan, he is sticking to it, he has a staff to implement the strategy and the funds to get it done via The Grove Collective and Rebel Nation.

Yep, sometimes I have to pinch myself, but we all know it’s real. The proof is in the ever-changing and ever-improving roster.

We see it almost every day with what seems like non-stop action.

Is this fun, or what?

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