More coaching staff turnover for Ole Miss
departures, new hires, a bad basketball team and the return of golf
Hope everyone is having a great week. We have a new podcast out with some basketball thoughts at the top, followed by a conversation with Ole Miss alum and United States Navy fighter pilot John Haslett. We discussed breaking the sound barrier, jamming enemy missile defense systems and how he learned to fly. Check that out here or anywhere you get your podcasts.
We’ve got some coaching staff news, basketball and golf to get to today.
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Rebels lose Kevin Smith to Miami
In an offseason of massive coaching staff turnover, Ole Miss lost another on Tuesday when running backs coach Kevin Smith accepted the same position at Miami. This is a significant loss for Ole Miss. Smith, by all accounts, is a great coach and a great recruiter. He played a major role in the Rebels landing Quinshun Judkins and he was the reason Henry Parrish came to Ole Miss. I am just speculating here, but I wouldn’t completely rule out one of them ending up at Miami with Smith. That’s just a guess, but it would be hardly unprecedented in this modern age of the transfer portal. It’s gotten to the point to where it’s almost odd when a coach, assistant or head man, goes to a new place and doesn’t bring a player or two from his old place. Anyway, that’s something to monitor.
(About an hour after I typed the above paragraph, as I was editing this, news broke. So, there’s that.)
In the broader scope of things, each time a coach leaves Kiffin’s staff, fans seem to inquire if there is a larger problem or this is just natural attrition after a historic season. We hit on this a little bit in Monday’s newsletter, but there is probably a little bit of truth to both. You can explain each one of these hires away. This one is no different. Smith is from Miami. He was a legendary high school running back at Southridge High School in Dade County and went on to have a great career up the road at UCF. It makes sense. But it’s also naïve not to at least wonder why Ole Miss has lost as many staffers as it has in one offseason, particularly a couple like this to what seem like lateral moves. I don’t know what the working dynamic is inside the football building, but from talking to people, it does at least sound like Kiffin isn’t the easiest person to work for. But how many coaches are easy to work for? I doubt Nick Saban is a stroll in the park. But he’s also the greatest to ever do it and his method is proven. There are also different types of ‘hard to work for’. Are you demanding or do you treat people like shit? I am not suggesting Kiffin is either, I am just curious to see how this plays out over the next year to 18 months. He’s going to have mostly a brand new on-field staff next year. How many guys leave after a year and why? I think it’s too early to call this a trend at this point, but it’s at least starting to develop into something more than typical staff turnover.
Kiffin’s got a pretty good batting average when it comes to hiring coaches. But the more plate appearances you have, the more likely it is that the average dips — unless you’re an elite hitter. The jury is still out in that regard.
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Report: Kiffin tabs Blackwell as RBs coach
Kiffin moved pretty quickly in hiring a replacement. Reports surfaced on Thursday that Houston running backs coach Marquel Blackwell is Ole Miss’s new running backs coach. He played quarterback at USF from 1999-2002 and has previously worked as the running backs coach at West Virginia and Toledo.
I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about the guy other than that. He coached Cleveland Browns running back Kareem Hunt at Toledo.
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Chris Kiffin returns to Ole Miss as Co-DC
Chris Kiffin is back. He will be Ole Miss’s linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator. I doubt I need to remind any of you, but Kiffin was handed a two-year show cause in 2019 stemming from the half-decade long investigation into the Ole Miss football program under Hugh Freeze.
I don’t have a whole lot of thoughts on this hire. Kiffin was a good recruiter while at Ole Miss. I mean that sincerely. He always seemed like a pretty sharp and normal dude from the very few interactions I had with him. He’s spent the last four years in the NFL and served as the Cleveland Browns defensive line coach the last two years.
If you’d like me to read too far into things, it seems like familiarity has been a trend with Lane Kiffin’s hiring practices this offseason. Most coaches do this to some degree. Coaches hate the unknown and the uncontrollable. But I suppose what I am getting at is that he hired Charlie Weis Jr. who was his OC at FAU. Chris Kiffin, breaking new here, is his biological brother. I would assume they know one another decently well. He was also the defensive coordinator at FAU prior to the show cause. Lane Kiffin promoted Chris Partridge from within. Blackwell is the only hire Kiffin hasn’t worked with previously, to this point. Maybe that means nothing. It’s just something I noticed.
Lastly, Kiffin and Partridge seem like a pretty strong combination from a recruiting standpoint. Marquise Watson was a significant loss in that department and I think this is a pretty solid replacement in that sense. There is no word yet on whether Chris Kiffin’s infamous couch will also be returning to Oxford. Personally, I hope he puts it in his office and embroiders the Rebel Rags logo on it.
Basketball loses at Texas A&M, host Auburn Saturday
The Rebels lost 67-51 to Texas A&M on Tuesday night. I doubt many of you are dying to read basketball content. That’s probably because the team isn’t very good, and on top of that, is a really tough product to watch. Andy Kennedy had a few teams that weren’t very good but were fun to watch because they never had a problem scoring the basketball and he was pretty comfortable finding 15 shots a game for one dynamic scorer or shooter.
I think the product matters because it plays a role in how badly attendance drops off and low attendance is usually the straw that breaks the camel’s back when a coach’s fate is determined. People want to go watch a winner, but they also want to enjoy what they’re watching even if that team is having a rough stretch. I am not suggesting or hinting at anything in particular when it comes to this season. I simply think it’s indicative of a problem Kermit Davis has had for two seasons now. Translation: it’s a problem he’s had since (Kennedy signees)Terence Davis and Breein Tyree left the program.
Last night was a perfect encapsulation of Davis’s inability to bring in guys that can put the orange pill in the cylinder. Ole Miss only got outrebounded by three. The Rebels forced 10 steals, turned it over the same amount of times as the Aggies and held the Aggies to just 5-18 from three-point range. Ole Miss defended well enough to win the game. Yes, the Rebels allowed A&M to shoot 55 percent from the field via 42 paint points, but the Aggies entered this game averaging 83 points per game and scored 67 — and Ole Miss lost by 16 points.
I understand Jarkel Joiner being out hurts. Any team that loses its leading scorer, particularly and offensively-challenged one like this team, it’s going to hurt. But this wasn’t a great offensive team when Joiner was healthy. I watched that game and spent most of it wondering: ‘should it look this bad? Even without Joiner?’.
A prime example of the offensive ineptitude leading to a razor thin margin for error for this team was the early minutes of the second half. Ole Miss trailed 33-29 at halftime. Texas A&M jumped out to a 39-30 lead within the first two minutes. Ole Miss went on a 7-0 spurt to shave the margin to two. All seven points came off turnovers on the defensive end. One was a dunk, the other was a layup and the third was a transition three. That’s fine. But Ole Miss didn’t record another field goal until six minutes later and that was the stretch in which the game was decided. With 4:42 remaining in the game, Ole Miss had 13 points in the second half. Only six of those points weren’t off turnovers. The Rebels played nearly 16 minutes of basketball and generated six points of offense completely independent of what it did on the defensive end. Six. That is sort of mind blowing. And it’s somewhat the norm with this group rather than the outlier. Should it look this bad? Ole Miss went 5-22 from three-point range. You’re probably wondering why nearly half of their shots were from three point range if they weren’t making them. If you watched the game, most of them — outside of a few Ruffin heaves early in the shot clock — were decent shots. Ole Miss got the ball to the middle of the floor around the free throw line extended and create open corner threes off of it. The Rebels simply couldn’t make them. This team lacks both shot creators and shot makers and it’s equated to a pretty brutal product to watch and a long road ahead.
Joiner will be out for at least six weeks with a back injury. But again, he wasn’t exactly carrying the team to respectability on the offensive end when he was on the floor. The fact that Ole Miss doesn’t have a single guy that you can count on to create a shot outside of Ruffin (who is a 5-foot-9 freshman, albeit a talented one, who missed most of non-conference play) ultimately falls on roster construction. That’s a mistake Davis can ill-afford to continue to make if he wishes to stick around in Oxford. With Joiner out, Ole Miss now has legitimate reason to struggle in a daunting SEC. But that doesn’t absolve this coaching staff for putting together a roster completely devoid of bucket-getters. It just doesn’t.
Magnolia State Golf Update
The return of the segment I was born to write. In all seriousness, I do appreciate that at least a few people seem to care about the Mississippi golf updates. This state has tremendous golf at every level and I always wondered why it wasn’t covered more. So, let’s dive in.
The PGA Tour is in Honolulu, Hawaii this week for the Sony Open. I don’t care what anyone says or that the Tour does a wraparound season, this is the start of golf season inside my brain. How many times last year in this space did I write that there were no Mississippians in the field but that there will be soon? Well, this year, there are FOUR Mississippians in the field. All times are central time.
Little Rock, Mississippi native and Georgia Tech alum Andy Ogletree Monday qualified into this event and fired an opening round 5-under 65 in the morning wave. He’s T-8 as of this writing. Ogletree, the 2019 U.S. Amateur Champion, is an immensely talented player still trying to find his legs in professional golf. He earned Korn Ferry Tour membership via qualifying school this fall and will play that tour when its season cranks up in a few weeks. This is a gigantic opportunity for him. Monday qualifying is arguably the hardest thing to do in professional golf. It’s also expensive. Barring something insane like a win, this is a chance for a young player to cash hefty paycheck and give himself a little financial stability he’ll have a lot harder time finding on the Korn Ferry Tour. He tees off at 5:20 on Friday.
Fulton native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey also went off in the morning wave and fired a 3-under 67. He sits at T-26 as of this writing. Ramey put together one of the most remarkably consistent stretches you’ll see in professional golf over the last 18 months. He finished in the top five in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings and earned a PGA Tour card. Ramey notched a T-14 and a T-17 finish to start the PGA Tour season in the fall. He tees off 5:20 off the 10th tee (not Ogletree’s group) on Friday.
Tupelo native and Mizzou alum Hayden Buckley teed off at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. He is currently 1-under thru five holes as a write this. Buckley’s last 11 months have been something out of a movie. This time last year, he held partial Korn Ferry Tour status. A month later, he got into the field at an event in Florida as the last alternate and won it. He finished just outside the top 25 (that graduates you to the PGA Tour) in the Korn Ferry Tour regular season standings, but earned his card (and removed all doubt) with a pair of top 10 finishes in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The former walk-on at Missouri who neither in-state school would take only followed that up by notching a T-4 and a T-8 in two of his first three PGA Tour events as a member. The T-4 came at the Sanderson Farms Classic in Jackson. Buckley earned half a million bucks for his efforts. His play early on in the season is going to bode well as the next reshuffle will see him get more opportunities to get into events than other rookies. That’s the name of the game as a rookie on tour: play well when the opportunities come, because you don’t get a lot of them. What a wild 12 months for Buckley. He tees of at 12:30 p.m. on Friday.
Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley teed off at 5:20 on Thursday. He is also 1-under thru five holes as of this writing. Riley is going to be a superstar in professional golf. He won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in the first five events in 2020, and basically spent the next 18 months biding his time as COVID prevented him from graduating to the PGA Tour in 2021 (the Korn Ferry Tour did basically a double, two-year long season). He notched a nifty T-7 at the Bermuda event in the fall to kickstart his rookie year. Riley tees off at 12:50 on Friday.
On the horizon
Mailbag Friday pod and picks with LBs Greg
Friday newsletter with football, hoops and anything I find interesting.
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