Rod Taylor. Taylor will see snaps as a guard behind Justin Bell.
Marquis Haynes. Haynes has drawn more praise than any other freshman for his speed at the defensive line position. Expectations are high that Haynes will help the Rebels in the quarterback sack statistics almost immediately.
C.J. Hampton. Hampton was one of the most prized members of the 2014 class. Ole Miss won a hotly contested recruiting battle with Alabama to get him to Oxford. Like Haynes, Hampton enrolled early, and those extra snaps in spring have him ready to spell Cody Prewitt at safety.
The Moore Twins. A.J. and C.J. brothers will play on every special team. A.J. will also be the backup huskie. Mike Hilton will primarily play corner, which allows A.J. to back Tony Conner up at huskie. Freeze said he thinks A.J. is ready to go, and has been open in his admiration for the Moore's athleticism since last signing day.
DeMarquis Gates. Gates has impressed with his size and speed at linebacker.
Kendarius Webster. The coaches like Webster's size and ability at corner.
Markell Pack. Freeze expects the talented 4-star receiver to play this year. Maybe not Thursday night, but soon, depending on how the game goes Thursday.
Freshmen not mentioned, including standouts from the signing class like defensive ends Victor Evans and Breeland Speaks and wide receiver Dayall Harris and others are looking at possible red shirts. A year or two ago these guys would have probably played, but the fact is that Ole Miss is a much deeper football team than it was in the first years of Freeze's tenure. More experience on the roster makes it harder for freshmen to earn immediate playing time. It's a good problem to have, but probably not the easiest conversation between head coach and a player with aspirations of playing immediately.
“Those are the conversations you have to have with them," Freeze said. "They all want to play. When you sit down and explain to them the benefits of redshirting, most understand it. This circus around recruiting now and the social media and everything that builds these kids up to be something so, so phenomenal - they are good players, but when they get to the real world of this level of football, there are also a lot of good players here. We hope that continues to where we don’t have to play as many. Academically it is something that can be very beneficial to those young men. And physically. When you’re playing with a number of seniors that are now fifth-year seniors that are now 22, 23 years old, that’s a different ball game and they’re much more mature. It’s not the easiest thing for them to initially embrace. There may be more that we have to play. Breeland Speaks is going to be a great player. You want to do right by the kid. If we end up staying healthy there and he ends up having four years remaining, it may be the best for him. He’s traveling because you never know what’s going to happen with those trench guys. It’s a conversation we have openly with them to let them know where we are. We’ve had C.J. Moore who we’ve debated on. We were planning on redshirting him, then Carlos goes down, who was our best special teams cover guy. We think he can fill that role. We had the conversation with him and his dad just to see how they felt and let them have a couple days to mull it over, knowing that they may not play a lot on defense unless there are some injuries. You’ll play them every special team. He wants to play with his brother. We’re going to play him.”