Ole Miss inks three more players to finish off 2023 signing class

Feb 2, 2023 - 5:26 PM

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Three more signees were officially added to the Ole Miss football signing class of 2023 on Wednesday.

The total number of high school signees and transfers for the class adds up to 28 players with the addition of defensive end Chamberlain Campbell, DE Deejay Holmes and offensive lineman Mana Taimani.

Campbell, a three star out of Florida, is 6’7” 215 lbs. and a top 50 DE nationally. He tallied eight sacks in his senior season and 15 tackles for loss. Here’s his senior highlights per his personal Twitter.

Holmes is also a three star DE with a top 100 national ranking at his position out of Pahokee, Fla. His stats are what really jumps off the page for this prospect - 32.5 sacks, 27.5 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles IN HIS SENIOR SEASON. He also tallied 19.5 sacks in his junior season in only nine games. Whoa.

Here’s the moment where he chose Ole Miss over Colorado and Central Florida among others.

Taimani committed earlier this year as a top 25 JC prospect nationally and top ten offensive tackle prospect out of junior college. He had two years of FBS experience playing at Wyoming, and he is a prototypical sized 6’5” 305 lbs. for the o-line.

Obviously the later signing day does not have anywhere near the pop it used to ever since the creation of the early signing day in December. During Lane Kiffin’s press conference talking about the changing landscape of recruiting, he talked about the new complexities of the NIL landscape and “pay for play” strategy throughout college football.

Kiffin laid out how the lack of a more defined transfer window or free agency period has coaching staffs not only recruiting transfers and high school players, but now they are also tasked with recruiting their current players to stay.

The value of high school players who have the one time transfer availability versus a transfer college player who has tape at the FBS level is incomparable. Additionally, a transfer FBS player especially who has three years of eligibility would be more locked in to a second college choice, adding to that value for coaches.

Kiffin seems to be focused on the portal with the No. 3 nationally ranked transfer class per On3 rankings. The 15 other signees ranked No. 22 nationally with On3, one spot ahead of Mississippi St. but trailing SEC foes Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Auburn.