Taking stock of what Ole Miss lost and could get back now that the portal has officially closed

The second of two NCAA Transfer Portal windows is officially closed. Good thing, too. Ole Miss nearly hit double-digit post-spring entrants.

To be fair, veteran linebacker Reginald Hughes got in only to withdraw and return, and players currently in the portal can be recruited by any and all suitors all the way up until fall-camp kickoffs in August. There are a few additional players who could make their way back onto the roster, too.

But Lane Kiffin wasn’t wrong when, last month, he talked far more about the downside of the portal (the players programs lose) than the upside.

“We’re always in search of making the roster the best that we can,” Kiffin told Paul Finebaum in April. “We have a number of holes to fill. So we will definitely be looking at that as they come available and see what we can do. We’ve had some good success in years before in these windows.

“It’s interesting to kind of have two windows. It’ll be kind of like having two free agencies in professional sports. So you have spring to evaluate what you’re doing and other people what they’re doing. And now you have free agency.”

Ole Miss had nine players jump in over a nine-day (April 19-28) span.

The most-high profile departures were arguably defensive lineman Tywone Malone and cornerback Markevious Brown. Sources initially indicated they both seemingly entered as negotiating leverage for potentially more lucrative NIL deals at Ole Miss.

The Rebels also saw Jackson State transfer Shane Hooks commit and de-commit within days. In short, a lot has happened.

So, let’s reset the board since the portal dust has settled. And just as we did with the first portal window, we’ll measure the losses on a traditional 1-10 scale.

Ole Miss DL JJ Hawkins entered the transfer portal last week

DL JJ Hawkins

Spirit’s Take: Sources indicate there’s a real chance Hawkins comes back. He was running with the second-team defense for most of spring practices and was the primary fill-in for injured starting EDGE Cedric Johnson.

Johnson will obviously return to the first team whenever he’s fully healthy, possibly as early as fall-camp practices in August. But Hawkins was a near shoo-in for the defensive end rotation, even if Johnson and Jared Ivey are more the defensive-end prototypes first-year Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding is looking for.

Ivey is a one-time Georgia Tech transfer and the projected starter opposite Johnson. Hawkins has three years of eligibility remaining.

IMPACT METER: 5

MALONE AND BROWN

Spirit’s Take: Getting Malone and Brown back doesn’t look at all promising, per sources. They’re both former four-star signees. Malone played both football and basketball at Ole Miss. He was ranked as the nation’s No. 86 overall football prospect in the 2021 recruiting class.

Malone would have likely been the fourth or fifth defensive tackle in the rotation with a good August camp. Brown was the Rebels’ third or fourth cornerback. If nothing else, he was certainly in the rotation.

Brown is the fourth Ole Miss defensive back to transfer since last season. The others are Davison Igbinosun (Ohio State), Miles Battle (Utah) and Tysheem Johnson (Oregon). All three were projected starters and winter entrants.

Ole Miss added four-year Georgia Tech starting cornerback Zamari Walton, as well as Miami (Ohio) defensive back John Saunders. North Texas corner DeShawn Gaddie could be a summer enrollee if he gets his academics in order.

Regardless, corner/defensive back has emerged as a priority target-area for Ole Miss in the spring. The Rebels over the weekend hosted Rhode Island cornerback Antonio Carter. Additional secondary targets include Jaylen Key, who arrived in Oxford on Monday for a visit.

IMPACT METER: 5

DEMARKO WILLIAMS

Spirit’s Take: Williams was injured for most all of his brief Ole Miss career. As a result, he was buried on the depth chart and was at best in line for snaps as the fifth or six corner.

Injuries sidelined him for the entirety of spring. As in, he wasn’t able to participate in a single practice.

IMPACT METER: 1

BRANDON BUCKHAULTER

Spirit’s Take: Buckhaulter could be back, especially after a strong and productive spring in which he showed emerging chemistry with Walker Howard, Ole Miss’ quarterback of the future.

Howard was previously ranked as a four-star and the the nation’s No. 45 overall player in the 2022 recruiting class. He was the No. 6 quarterback and transferred to Ole Miss from SEC West rival LSU during the winter. Howard is competing with incumbent Jaxson Dart and Oklahoma State transfer Spencer Sanders to be the Rebels’ starting quarterback.

Buckhaulter — a one-time, three-star in-state signee — mostly played special teams over his 11 games last season. He has three years of eligibility remaining. What set Buckhaulter back at Ole Miss, according to sources, was his struggles with defensive reads and making adjustments. However, he did flash when sticking to predetermined routes.

IMPACT METER: 3

Ole Miss wide receiver Brandon Buckhaulter hit the portal on Friday

FLIP CARSWELL

Spirit’s Take: Ole Miss publicly celebrated a Carswell flip from Miami (Fla.) on National Signing two Decembers ago. He just didn’t work out as a Rebel.

Carswell arrived smaller than expected and didn’t grow all that much. Like Williams, he was buried on the depth chart.

IMPACT METER: 1

BRAXTON MYERS

Spirit’s Take: Myers was one of Ole Miss’ most high-profile signees in November. He committed to the Rebels over additional offers from, among others, USC, Clemson, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

He enrolled early and went through spring drills. However, former Ole Miss cornerbacks coach Sam Carter, who served as Myers’ primary recruiter, left for Purdue after one season. Myers appears poised to follow.

He visited Purdue last week.

Myers also saw freshman walk-on defensive back AJ Brown shift from safety to corner in the spring and move ahead of him on the depth chart. His upside and potential ceiling is what makes him a loss.

IMPACT METER: 6

ELIJAH SABBATINI

Spirit’s Take: Sabbatini was a not-insignificant in-state signee from 2021. He was listed on the two-deep depth chart for two years at safety but never played.

IMPACT METER: 2

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