College football used to be about local, in-state recruiting. However, as the sport, and business, have changed, so has recruiting. It’s gone from being a localized practice to a national, and sometimes international, concept.
This is where Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin comes into play.
Ever since arriving on campus in Oxford back in 2020, Kiffin has made it known that he wants to put a bigger emphasis on recruiting than had recently been seen at Ole Miss. Between embracing the transfer portal more than most, to creating catchy social media slogans, Kiffin is all about recruiting. And while it started out as a bit of a national thing for him, he’s started to embrace the local side of it.
This is arguably seen best by the huge commitment he picked up over the weekend.
Kam Franklin Picks Ole Miss
Perennial 4-star (sometimes 5-star, depending on where you look) recruit Kam Franklin picked Ole Miss over Tennessee, Auburn, and Miami, among others, over the weekend. The 6’5″, 265-pound defensive lineman from Lake Cormorant, MS is the top-ranked player in the state of MS and is ranked 46th nationally, according to 247Sports Composite rankings.
He’s also the top-rated prospect so far in the Rebels’ 2024 class. And that’s for good reason.
In his sophomore and junior years at Lake Cormorant, Franklin recorded a combined 164 tackles and 30 sacks. Yes, it’s high school, but those are still tremendous numbers. With a frame that should allow for more weight to be added, there’s a reasonable chance Franklin can be a legitimate force by the time he arrives in Oxford.
Franklin Joins A Bevy Of In-State Defensive Talent
While Franklin may be the best player in the Rebels’ class to this point, he’s certainly not the only key player that Kiffin’s added to next year’s class.
He joins a list that includes William Echols, Jeffery Rush, Kamron Beavers, and Patrick Broomfield.
A few things about that list. They are all also from the state of Mississippi. They are all three-star recruits or higher. And they all play on the defensive side of the football. In fact, Broomfield is the only player on that list who doesn’t play on the defensive line. We’ve covered the fact that the Ole Miss defensive line is stacked this season, but it looks like next year’s version could be more of the same.
What this shows is that Kiffin, and new Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding are trying to do something that virtually no one has tried to do before. They’re trying to win primarily with in-state talent.
Now, that doesn’t mean they’re completely staying in-state. Kiffin, especially, loves the transfer portal, and you can expect him to continue to utilize the portal well. After all, a guy who creates the hashtags #TransferToTheSip and #ComeToTheSip doesn’t just plan on those being one-time things.
But it’s telling when much of the social media activity during this recruiting cycle has gone away from those two hashtags and has oftentimes been replaced instead with #StayInTheSip. As Kiffin gets more comfortable in the state, and furthers his connections, it appears he wants to dominate the state’s recruiting, as well. All of that is expected.
But that leads to the most important question.
Can In-State Talent From Mississippi Lead To Big-Time Success?
Having plenty of talent is great, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t lead to success. So can focusing on in-state talent from the state of Mississippi lead to success? In no certain terms, it’s tough to say.
Despite being a bit of a national afterthought, there’s plenty of talent throughout the state, and always has been. Guys like DK Metcalf, AJ Brown, Jerry Rice, and the late Steve McNair are all from Mississippi, and that’s just a small sample size. So you can absolutely have reasonable success with in-state talent. And hey, tearing up in-state recruiting leads to a certain pride amongst Ole Miss fans, and MS residents in general.
But the SEC is arguably the best conference in college football. And when you’re dealing with programs like Alabama and Georgia, you are going to have to find talent from elsewhere to compete with those juggernauts. The good news is that Kiffin seems to understand that.
Because while pride is always a good thing to have, it doesn’t necessarily win football games. Talent does, and right now, Kiffin and Golding are betting heavily on in-state talent to lead the way.
Time will tell whether the bet pays off.
