Portal noise aside, Ole Miss makes a quiet but important recruiting move

College football is currently overshadowed by the transfer portal and who is committing where. It’s such a large shadow you can be forgiven forgetting there’s still one more game to play.

There’s also the part of college football that never ends: high school recruiting and Monday has brought two important stories for Ole Miss in that arena.

Copiah Academy linebacker Tre’kievion Ellis announced his commitment to Ole Miss on Monday and will be apart of the Rebels’ 2026 signing class.

Ellis, a 6-foot-3, 240 lbs. defensive end/linebacker, made his decision nearly six weeks after the early signing period opened in December. A lot of changes took place in that time span that impacted Ellis’ decision.

He was going to sign with Mississippi State, but then the Bulldogs fired defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler and Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU. Those changes led Ellis to deciding to wait and see how the situations played.

Apparently, it played out well enough at Ole Miss for Ellis to commit to the Rebels. Ellis told Rebels247 the communication between him and Ole Miss, particularly new coach Pete Golding, picked up and that Golding was “more up-front” about the changes in Oxford than the previous staff.

A two-way star at Copiah Academy, Ellis is expected to play primarily in a defensive role, either at linebacker or defensive end.

Committed recruit still being pursued

That’s the good news. The other bit of news isn’t bad, but it’s not great.

Four-star defensive lineman Jamarkus Pittman committed to Ole Miss last June and that commitment hasn’t wavered despite the coaching changes.

But other SEC schools are still pursuing the Memphis, Tenn.-native.

And, no, the one SEC school you thought of isn’t one of the two.

According to Rivals’ Chad Simmons, Auburn and Oklahoma are still recruiting Pittman. A visit to Auburn is already being planned for the season and Pittman would like to visit Oklahoma.

What has the Rebels in the best position is defensive line coach Lucas Joyner, who was the main recruiter for Pittman at Ole Miss.

“Coach Joyner is my guy,” Pittman said in the article. “I’ve been there a few times, and my last visit was for the LSU game. I like it there a lot. There was a change, and Pete Golding is the coach now, but I’m still good with Ole Miss. Coach Joyner is a big part of my commitment. He’s a great coach, he’s produced some top defensive linemen, and I really like our relationship. His teaching ability really stands out to me.”

It’s not a situation to get too worked up about, but is certainly worth monitoring.