Preseason Football – Rebels go to full pads

Cain Madden | The Daily Mississippian
True Freshman Nickolas Brassell of Batesville makes a catch during Wednesday's
practice. Coach Huston Nutt said two-way player Brassell continues to impress him.

By Bennett Hipp

Ole Miss practiced in the full pads for the first time Wednesday afternoon, and the Rebels seemed somewhat sluggish as they made the transition from shoulder pads to full pads.

“The pads were a little extra weight on them today,” Nutt said. “You find out a lot about them – especially our younger people – about who can handle this mental part when we keep all these new installs going in.”

In what has become a norm this fall practice, Nutt had high praise for some of the freshmen that have continued to play well during practice.

“I’ve been really proud of guys like Keith Lewis, C.J. Johnson and Serderius Bryant,” Nutt said. “They continue to show up. Our freshman guys like Senquez Golson on defense, Chief Brown and Cody Prewitt. What an athlete, (Prewitt) can really run. I’m excited about him.”

Senior defensive end Kentrell Lockett returned to practice after being held out Tuesday with soreness in his patella tendon, while sophomore linebacker Ralph Williams saw more action after sophomore linebacker Mike Marry got banged up early in practice.

As the battle for playing time at the receiver position continues, only a couple of the receivers and tight ends showed out on Wednesday, according to Nutt. Freshman two-way player Nickolas Brassell continues to impress, while junior college transfer Jamal Mosley has been a revelation at tight end for the Rebels.

“Nick Brassell picked us up today,” Nutt said. “It seemed like he was about the only receiver that really got going – him and Jamal Mosley. Tobias Singleton also has been very consistent, but we’ve got to have more of those guys come on.”

Senior running back Brandon Bolden felt that the Rebels started to hit a wall towards the end of practice.

“You’ve got to push through it like coach Nutt kept saying,” Bolden said. “It is a man’s game and the best will rise.”

Ole Miss will practice in full pads for the second time on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. on the practice field, and it will be open to the public. Saturday’s scrimmage, tentatively set for 6 p.m., will also be open to the public.

Ole Miss unveils $150 million capital campaign

Releases renderings for new basketball arena, football stadium renovations and expansion

By David Henson

Ole Miss Athletics announced two phases of facility enhancement that could lead to championships, Athletics Director Pete Boone said.

The vision set for University of Mississippi athletics was unveiled Tuesday at the South Endzone club at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Boone called the day a landmark event for Ole Miss Rebel fans.

“The $150 million facilities initiative will be the cornerstone of future championships for the flagship university of this great state.” Boone said. “Coming off of two consecutive years of record-breaking athletics giving, there is no better time than now.”

Boone went on to say, “The path we have chosen will lead to championships. And the path we have chosen, we can do. Every bit of support will be critical to the success of creating these championship-level facilities.”

Photo by Petre Thomas | The Daily Mississippian
Danny White, the executive director of the UMAA Foundation, talks of the capital campaign
while Chancellor Dan Jones and Athletics Director Pete Boon look on.

Danny White, the executive director of the UMAA Foundation, said that the capital campaign, Forward Together, calls for everyone to come together and help reach that goal.

White said the process started about a year ago with gathering information and preparation for the campaign. White also noted that Ole Miss is partnering with AECOM, a technology and management support firm, and Row 27, a web-based sports marketing firm.

The total plan is to raise $150 million. Phase one will dedicate $100 million toward building a new 10,000-seat basketball arena, as well as concourse-related renovations to the football stadium. The remaining $50 million will be used to bowl in the North Endzone of the football stadium, bringing capacity to over 70,000.

“Our plan is to build a first-class, state-of-the-art basketball facility that will be home to our men’s and women’s baseball programs that our fans, coaches and student-athletes can be proud of,” White said of phase one of in a pre-recorded video shown to those in attendance.

“The Grove is the greatest tailgating atmosphere in college football,” White said. “We want to cater to that culture. We want to have a North Endzone plaza facing the Grove that will serve as an impressive front door to the football stadium.”

The goal is for the basketball arena and football concourse renovations and improvement to be finished by 2015-2016. The North Endzone addition would follow after that.

After the announcement, men’s basketball head coach Andy Kennedy discussed what the new arena will mean to his program.

“What this allows us, specifically as a men’s basketball program, is to say that we have obviously dealt with an aging facility and that facility has had issues from time to time,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the transition will help with marketing Men’s Rebel Basketball.

“More than anything, it creates a unique game day experience for our fans, and I think we are the only sport currently that can’t create that, just based on the logistics of the age of our facility,” Kennedy said. “I think that it immediately addresses that and it obviously gives us something to sell to future Rebels.”

Forward Together will be the biggest campaign in Ole Miss history. To view renderings of the projects or to donate to the Forward Together campaign, visit www.ForwardTogetherRebels.com.

Preseason Football – Stoudt shows improvement, Nkemdiche debuts

By Bennett Hipp

Ole Miss had its fourth practice of camp on Tuesday, and head coach Houston Nutt came away pleased with how his quarterbacks played.

“I thought the quarterbacks threw the ball really well today” Nutt said. “Zack Stoudt threw the ball really well today, I think at one time he was about nine of ten (on throws). (Randall) Mackey threw the ball well today, hit a couple of touchdowns. Barry (Brunetti) hit a couple touchdowns, so they are getting better, and we just have to keep going.”

Stoudt, a junior, had the best performance of the three quarterbacks on Tuesday. And Nutt was proud of how far he has come after being in the “doghouse” toward the end of spring practice.

“Well, it started in the summer,” Nutt said. “He went to every class and learned a valuable lesson, school-wise. He has just worked hard to try and win his teammates over again with leadership and work ethic.”

With the quarterbacks continuing to perform well, the challenge of naming a starter is becoming tougher by the day for the Ole Miss coaching staff.

‘We’ve got three guys that you’re not afraid to put any one of the three of them in the game,” Nutt said. “That’s a good feeling.”

Nutt said having that many guys ready to go at quarterback is not something he has ever had before.

“It’s going to be interesting in that first scrimmage and then the second scrimmage will come right after that pretty quickly on Wednesday,” Nutt said. “It’ll be interesting to see which two separate themselves.”

After an issue with the NCAA Clearinghouse, freshman defensive back Denzel Nkemdiche finally got on the practice field for the Rebels and played well in his first day.

“It was good to get Nkemdiche out here,” Nutt said. “He couldn’t go through everything, but he’s out here. He has to go without pads. He’s a day behind us, so we’ll bring him along slowly, but he looks good.”

Senior defensive end Kentrell Lockett sat out of practice Tuesday after experiencing soreness in his patella tendon as he recovers from an ACL injury.

“We also rested Lockett today, which was our plan,” Nutt said. “He will probably go every other day. When you have had the number of surgeries that he has had, you try to watch the swelling in this heat.”

Junior fullbacks H.R. Greer and E.J. Epperson sat out practice Tuesday as well. Greer was walking around in a boot with what is hoped to be only a bad ankle sprain. Epperson has a mild concussion and should be back in a couple days.

Ole Miss suits up in full pads for the first time Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. on the practice field, and it will be open to the public.