Tre Harris showed he could be the superstar receiver Ole Miss is still searching for this season

There is no argument that Ole Miss has a lot of talented players in its wide receivers room but all through fall camp there was not that one breakout superstar to emerge from the group.

Tre Harris III raised his hand emphatically on Saturday and offered himself up as tribute. The Louisiana Tech transfer introduced himself to the Ole Miss emphatically with a record-setting performance.

After the first three minutes and 15 seconds of the game Harris accounted for three touchdowns and tied the program record for most touchdown catches in a single game. Harris ended the day with six catches for 133 yards and four touchdowns.

Harris tied Jordan Watkins for the most receptions in the Rebels 73-7 season-opening win over Mercer.

“I didn’t. I’m not going to lie to you,” Harris said when asked if he was aware of how fast a start the Ole Miss offense, and himself, had.

“I looked at the scoreboard and realized its 21-7 pretty quick. I was like, ‘Dang, that happened real quick.’ My mindset going into the game was just dominate. That was the whole team’s mindset. We didn’t care who we were playing. Didn’t matter what the logo said on their helmet.”

None of the success Harris experienced on Saturday surprised him. Since coming to Ole Miss in January he has been able to get a spring and fall camp’s worth of practice with the playbook.

The comfort with the offense set in before the August preseason practices began. It showed throughout the four weeks of camp and Lane Kiffin took notice early last month.

“I really thought he had played like this the whole camp,” Kiffin said. “Looked like a really dominant SEC receiver. For him to go out and perform today in his first Power 5 game and catch four touchdowns in, whatever, two and a half quarters. I thought it was pretty neat to see.”

The entire Ole Miss passing game was on display in Saturday’s win and put the spotlight on the depth of the receivers room.

Twelve other receivers helped Harris make up the 524 passing yards against Mercer’s secondary. The air game found success after the Ole Miss ground attack led by Quinshon Judkins was held to a pedestrian 143 yards.

Saturday brought the first example of an opposing defense being aware of Judkins and the threat he poses with the ball in his hands. Harris and the rest of the receivers knew they could take advantage of this knowledge.

“We definitely knew that their safeties were going to be more aggressive,” Harris said. “We’d seen it on film. They were really aggressive on the perimeter on the back end. So we knew that they were probably going to stack the box at some point and really try to stop the run game, so we knew the passing game would be there for us.”

But when it comes to the individual performance of Harris it was confirmation of a belief Kiffin had when recruiting his new receiver.

“It was awesome to add him and he really responded today,” Kiffin said “Kind of has some (Jonathan) Mingo personality to him, too. Just goes to work. Doesn’t say much and not one of these guys that wants to celebrate because they make a first down and (does) some big dance.”

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