Ole Miss recruiting: A detailed look at commitments, targets for 2020 early signing period

OXFORD — The next generation of Ole Miss football players is starting to take shape.

The 2019 early signing period begins on Wednesday, meaning high school and junior college players will have their first opportunities to send in their National Letters of Intent to officially commit to schools. For Ole Miss, Wednesday will be an interesting mix between players Matt Luke's staff recruited  and members of Lane Kiffin's first Ole Miss class.

As of Tuesday evening, 15 players have committed to Ole Miss for the Class of 2020. Eight of those commits, as well as a handful of high-priority targets, have announced their intentions to sign their NLIs on Wednesday. 

Here's a breakdown of where Ole Miss' recruiting class stands heading into the early signing period, as well as a quick glance at some of the recruiting moves Kiffin and his staff have made in the last week.

Note: All player rankings for recruits are derived from the 247Sports composite rankings.

Eli Acker, Kentrel Bullock and more
The following eight Ole Miss commits have confirmed via Twitter or to the Clarion Ledger that they will be signing their National Letters of Intent on Wednesday:

• 3-star outside linebacker Jakivuan Brown (9 a.m.)
• 3-star offensive tackle Eli Acker (12:30 p.m.)
• 3-star defensive tackle DeSanto Rollins (11 a.m.)
• 3-star tight end DaMarcus Thomas (time TBD)
• 3-star linebacker Austin Keys (8:30 a.m.)
• JUCO safety Daylen Gill (time TBD)
• 3-star running back Kentrel Bullock (time TBD)
• 3-star quarterback Kade Renfro (6 p.m.)

Additionally, two of the top 10 prospects in Mississippi will be making their college decisions on Wednesday, and Ole Miss is in the mix for both of them.

Four-star defensive tackle Josaih Hayes, the No. 3 player in Mississippi, will be making his announcement at 9 a.m. on Wednesday at Horn Lake High School, along with his high school teammate and Ole Miss commit Brown.

Four-star athlete JJ Pegues, the No. 4 player in Mississippi, will be making his decision at 8 a.m. from Oxford High. 

Hayes decommitted from Ole Miss on Oct. 23, but listed Ole Miss as one of his top five schools on Nov. 20. The other schools in Hayes' top five are Kentucky, Auburn, Memphis and Mississippi State.

Hayes met with Kiffin in Oxford on Dec. 9 before heading to the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game. 

Pegues, who is an Oxford native, played tight end, running back, quarterback and defensive end in high school and led Oxford High to its first state championship this season.

Keeping up with the recruiting trail
Kiffin and his staff wasted no time putting their imprint on the 2020 recruiting class.

Ole Miss got its first true commitment of the Kiffin era on Monday when three-star quarterback Kade Renfro pledged to play for the Rebels. Ole Miss has also received two recommitments from Gill and Bullock, both of whom decommitted after Luke was fired only to rejoin the recruiting class in the subsequent days.

Beyond commitments, though, Ole Miss has sent out offers and scheduled visits with some top national prospects. 

Four-star running back Henry Parrish tweeted Sunday that he'd been offered by Ole Miss. The Miami native recently decommitted from Pittsburgh and took an official visit to Florida Atlantic in October when Kiffin was head coach of the Owls. Parrish's offer came from Ole Miss assistant coach Kevin Smith, who worked with Kiffin at FAU as well.Sam Brown, a three-star wide receiver from Georgia, also announced an Ole Miss offer last week. More specifically, Brown tweeted his Ole Miss offer 61 minutes after decommitting from UCF on Dec. 12. Ole Miss announced the hire of offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, formerly the offensive coordinator at UCF, on the same day.

Losses and returns
In total, nine players have decommitted from Ole Miss' 2020 recruiting class since Luke's firing. Three of those nine player have since committed elsewhere and two have recommitted to Ole Miss. 

Here's a list of the decommitments, sorted by star rankings.

• Four-star safety Eric Reed (uncommitted)
• Four-star quarterback Robby Ashford (uncommitted)
• Three-star guard Kahlil Benson (uncommitted)
• Bullock (recommitted to Ole Miss)
• JUCO cornerback Lakevias Daniel (uncommitted)
• Three-star outside linebacker Jaqwondis Burns (committed to Minnesota)
• Three-star running back Jabari Small (committed to Tennessee)
• Gill (recommitted to Ole Miss)
• Three-star athlete Kyjuan Herndon (committed to Maryland)

But for every decommitment in Ole Miss' recruiting class, the Rebels have countered almost one-for-one with a different kind of recommitment. A handful of Ole Miss players who entered the transfer portal during the 2019 season have indicated online that they will be returning for 2020 and taking their names out of the transfer portal.

This includes freshman quarterback Grant Tisdale, wide receivers Demarcus Gregory and Miles Battle and defensive back C.J. Miller.

Ole Miss' 2020 recruiting class
The following is a list of players committed to Ole Miss for the recruiting class of 2020:

• 3-star outside linebacker Jakivuan Brown (Horn Lake, Miss.)
• 3-star wide receiver Kris Abrams-Draine (Spanish Fort, Ala.)
• 3-star offensive tackle Eli Acker (Columbus, Miss.)
• 3-star cornerback De'Arre McDonald (Murfreesboro, Tenn.)
• 3-star running back Kentrel Bullock (Columbia, Miss.)
• 3-star offensive tackle Robert Scott (Conway, Ark.)
• 3-star cornerback Daran Branch (Amite, La.)
• 3-star inside linebacker Austin Keys (Seminary, Miss.)
• 3-star defensive tackle DeSanto Rollins (Baton Rouge, La.)
• 3-star tight end Damarcus Thomas (Saraland, Ala.)
• 3-star defensive end Cedric Johnson (Mobile, Ala.)
• 3-star offensive tackle Luke Shouse (Brentwood, Tenn.)
• 3-star safety Daylen Gill (Jones County J.C.)
• 3-star quarterback Kade Renfro (Stephenville, Texas)
• 3-star wide receiver Jaycob Horn (Tupelo, Miss.)

SOURCE: Siss, Nick. "Ole Miss recruiting: A detailed look at commitments, targets for 2020 early signing period." Mississippi Clarion Ledger, 17 December 2019, https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/ole-miss/2019/12/17/ole-miss-football-247-recruiting-rankings-eli-acker-kentrel-bullock/2640934001/

Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.