What a difference a year makes.
At this time a year ago, Ole Miss had just wrapped up a top-five national recruiting class. The Rebels signed 13 players ranked in the ESPN 300, including five-stars Greg Little and Benito Jones, as well as Shea Patterson, the nation’s top dual-threat quarterback. Coach Hugh Freeze even pulled four-star wide receiver A.J. Brown out of enemy territory in Starkville, Mississippi.
Meanwhile, down in Starkville, coach Dan Mullen and Mississippi State put together a class that finished at No. 33 in the final ESPN class rankings.
Mullen doesn’t get into the rankings. In 2011, he signed a class full of two- and three-star prospects that wasn’t highly regarded, either. That class had Dak Prescott, Josh Robinson, Preston Smith and Benardrick McKinney in it. Still, from a fan’s perspective, it was hard to not be a little disappointed after seeing Ole Miss finish the way it did with such a strong class.
However, between the Egg Bowl outcome, Mississippi State’s bowl victory, and most importantly, the ongoing NCAA investigation at Ole Miss, the balance of power in recruiting has shifted in the past 365 days.
Freeze struggled to put a full class together this year, signing just 21 players and a total of four players ranked in the ESPN 300. The highlight of national signing day for Ole Miss fans was when Tae-Kion Reed, an in-state defensive tackle, picked up a Mississippi State hat and threw it across the room. He then put on an Ole Miss hat to signify his intention to sign with the Rebels.
That didn’t sit well with Mississippi State's fans, but ultimately it was Mullen who got the last laugh. The Bulldogs jumped seven spots on signing day and finished with the nation's No. 24 class, 12 spots higher than Ole Miss, according to ESPN.
“I’m guessing because we finished ahead of them, then they’ll be talking in the locker rooms, around the water coolers, at the schools -- everywhere in the state,” Mullen told ESPN.com. “But I’m sure whenever they finish ahead of us, it’s the same going in the opposite direction. When you’re in that big of a rivalry, everyone is trying to compete at everything.”
Mullen said he’d probably use the top-25 class as one of his talking points on his speaking circuit this offseason because “the fans love it,” but he also knows that it’s still a little early to properly evaluate the class. The newcomers have yet to play a down, after all.
“When you ask how great was this recruiting class? My boring answer to that, but the true answer to that is ask me in 2-3 years,” Mullen said. “Where they are today doesn’t do much for us. How they develop and how they produce on the field, that’s how we’ll see how good of a recruiting class this really was.”
It likely won’t take 2-3 years before we see some of them on the field. Of Mississippi State's 24 signees, 13 enrolled early, including all nine of the junior college transfers. Plus, that doesn’t include four-star prospects Willie Gay and Kylin Hill, a pair of in-state recruits who Mullen believes will have a chance to make an immediate impact this coming season.
Momentum can be a funny thing. Freeze and the Rebels had all of it last February. They were coming off a 10-win season and had just signed a top-five recruiting class. Now? That momentum is long gone as they await word from the NCAA.
“There are a lot of issues around college football, and we’re certainly having our share,” Freeze said at his signing day news conference last Wednesday. “It has gone on for a long time. We’ve suffered penalties, and this recruiting class, it was a penalty to be under the cloud we’re under.”
In Starkville? They’re just hoping the recent wave of momentum they're riding carries over into spring practice.