"It's Incredibly Rare": Ole Miss Getting Kids to Re-Commit is a Recruiting Rarity
What Ole Miss is doing on the recruiting front simply never happens.
Yes, it's rare to see a school land four commitments in four days, as Ole Miss has done since Friday, but it's really how the Rebels are recruiting that isn't exactly seen often, if ever.
Since Friday, the Rebels have landed four commitments. Two of them, safety Elijah Sabbatini and defensive end Demarcus Smith, were players that had perviously in the cycle committed to Ole Miss and then later decommitted. Now, as we near signing day, they're Rebels again... that's so wildly rare in the recruiting landscape.
"We never see them," said John Garcia Jr., the Director of Football Recruiting for Sports Illustrated. "The more likely recommitment scenario than what we've seen at Ole Miss, is when a kid commits as an underclassmen. Things like Evan Neal, who committed to Alabama as a freshman in high school than decommittted. Years later as a senior he recommits to Alabama. That's more common.
"The decommit and re-commit in the calendar year, that's really rare. Just covering this for over ten years, I don't think I've seen ten of them. So it's incredibly rare. The reason it can happen for a school like Ole Miss this year is that it's such a damn exciting product."
You see decommitments all the time. Ole Miss landed quarterback Luke Altmyer on Friday after a decommitment from Florida State. Offensive guard Makylan Pounders decommitted from Mississippi State on Monday – he will likely to commit to Ole Miss on Thursday. That's how de-commitments usually work.
It's rare to have a player leave then come back, but what Lane Kiffin and Co. are doing at Ole Miss in general is rare.
Taking over the Rebel program just over one year ago today, Kiffin inherited a program that had one three SEC games in the prior two seasons. In just one season, one in which he didn't even have a spring ball or a normal training camp due to COVID-19, he's gotten the Rebels to 4-4 in the SEC in year one.
Watching this offense, it's easy to see how recruits could get excited about the future of the Ole Miss football program. In a year where recruits can't even take official visits or meet the new Rebel coaching staff, spearheaded by the excitement about the head man Lane Kiffin, they've been able to talk kids into not just 'Flipping to the 'Sip' but coming back to the 'Sip.
"There's just a general excitement around Ole Miss. It's because of the on-field product and it's because of Lane Kiffin," Garcia said. "It makes them unique in that, Kiffin's name lets them reach a recruit geographically that they maybe never have."
National Signing Day is on Dec. 16, just over one week away. It's likely that we'll see a handful of others commit to the Rebels before then, even a few more high-major flips are on the horizon. But for now, it's just remarkable to look back at the re-commitment work this staff has done. You just don't see that often.
More From The Grove Report:
Defensive End Demarcus Smith Re-commits to Ole Miss over Mississippi State
Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M Postponed, No-contest If Not Played
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