Ole Miss has a loaded roster for the 2024 season

Now by Jim naggie from the reei Senior Bowl and uh this is an interesting week for you right you're not evaluating players this week but you are building relationships uh what what does SEC media days mean for you and and for the Senior Bowl yeah it's funny it's funny you asked my wife said she why do you go to this thing again when I was get when I was getting on the plane uh I told her whatever whatever we're doing so far has been working I'm going on my seventh year at the game and I said I don't know if this helps or not honey but something's working working so I I got to keep going to this thing um but it it's a it's multi- level I mean one I love sitting with you guys and talking about the game promoting the game um I love seeing the coaches and catching up with those guys I me I usually talk to them on the phone enough anyway but but really it's about meeting these players and just like having a touch Point um you know just letting them know we're watching them and let you know I got a little thing I hand them about last year's game and all the players we had drafted um so yeah that's it man it's fun I feel like the reputation of the re Senior Bowl has gotten to the point where I I I know you've got to court these guys you got to make your evaluations you've got to invite them but it's a place that guys want to go because they've seen the results for players that play in the game and uh it it helps it it helps um you know when I took the job some friends in the agent Community were like man you got to wrestle the power away from us and I'm like what do you mean like these players don't know enough about the game so that's why we've hit social media hard over the last seven years and and obviously it started at uh it Miss in it really for me it started in Starkville um I was at it was the Dan Mullen Reunion game when he was coming back from with the Florida team and uh we were just getting going my first year and uh you know all our Scouts on Saturdays I've got 11 former NFL guys on this year staff and we'll be at games every Saturday we're down in the field and we shoot them during pregame and really close-up video because a big part of scouting in my opinion is like what does the body type look like you know um and so I remember we had a video of Montes sweat and so we tagged the players in it and I'm all Scouts leave games in the third quarter so they can beat the traffic out so I'm I leave at the third quarter I'm driving back to mobile through the back you know back roads in in Alabama and uh I look down at my phone and uh I hope my wife's not going to hear this because she'd kill me but I looked down at my phone and Montes sweat had had retweeted the post and followed me and I'm like we got it this is it you know um so just raising the awareness level because before I mean the agents were like Jim the players will come to us and they be like what do I do with this should I play in this should I not playing this and they're like you need to get it to the point where you know when they get the invite they're like oh yeah of course I want to play in this and after 6 years I I hope we're getting to that point has the transfer portal impacted uh anything about the way players are evaluated because you hear sometimes Bowl opt outs whether or not that matters do NFL teams care about that do they care about multis school transfer guys is that anything that gets brought up in the evaluation process for the NFL teams it does when I you know when when I was with the Patriots we used to have an alert we had all these different alerts like you if you had injury concerns or you know off the- field issues or whatever like we had the little letters for each alert and and uh there was a t alert and it was for transfers and for multiple transfers like at some point there's a red flag that goes up like why does this guy keep bouncing like why can't he um but you know for from the evaluation standpoint a couple things in the portal that has helped clean clean up the evaluation process is if these players are doing it the right way a lot of them are going to a different school to show a different skill set maybe they're not being used you know the way they feel like they should be used and and and again when you're trying to figure out who the dude is and that's the hardest part the easiest part after you've scouted for a long time is like watching the tape and figure if the guy can play the hard part is figuring out the person like what's he going to be when we give him money and he's got time on his hands well now with you know if they're in multiple buildings that's that's another whole group of people that have touched this player and know who this player is so we call it sourcing so these teams can now Source multiple buildings and you have to keep track of it like if you're going into let's just say off the top of my head Alabama they've got this kid Isaiah Bond who just transferred from Alabama to Texas right so if I'm if I'm going if I'm a scout when I go into Alabama I got to make a note I got to ask about Isaiah bond that day too I can't just ask about the Alabama guys I got to because they're going to have an opinion on Bond and and why he left so it's it's created a little more work but really if you do the work the right way um these teams should be making less mistakes I guess is the best way to to put it um because there's just more people to talk to I got to give Ian Fitz Simmons credit for this um should probably be careful doing that but but we were talking the other day and and he mentioned Michigan last year and the number of draft gradable players that that they had on their roster between guys that were actually drafted and guys that were udfas and then he said there's a comp this year in the uh in the SEC Old Miss is that what he said yeah did he tell you that uh yeah that and again it you think about it it makes sense the teams with the most NFL Talent are the ones usually standing there at the end you look at last year's final four udub had a ton of NFL guys I mean they had you know two really they had two linemen go in the first two rounds they had three receivers go in the first three rounds they had Michael penck go at eight I mean they they had good players Alabama had good players Michigan had what 14 guys drafted so all Miss we have over 20 draftable grades right now it will miss and that sounds crazy since there's only 22 guys on a football field but it's because some of those guys are transfers um so they're loaded there's there's a reason why people are are talking so highly of Old Miss I mean they really really do this is the best roster Lane's had so when you look at at those players and and the ones that obviously you're recruiting for the for the Senior Bowl is there anybody that really stands out for you I mean shoot they did a great job on the you get two pass rushers like I'm not going to try to say princ ley's last name can uman Mellen okay I got to practice that um but yeah getting Prince Ley getting Walter Nolan I me you got two guys that that can affect the quarterback in in in in one portal class I mean that those are great gets we invited uliss Bentley last year this might come as a surprise to some some Mississippi fans but there's there's teams in the league that have higher grades on Bentley than they had on Judkins you list why is that because he's Dynamic he's an electric player man like I was at the I was at the Auburn Old Miss game last year and Brad Holmes from the Lions the GM of the Lions was there Brandon Bean the GM of the bills was there um and I'm down on the field we love Bentley like I I when I went back and watched his SMU stuff I was like holy cow like this dude is like they need to be giving this guy the ball more I mean he didn't pop on our radar till the Georgia Tech game and he had what do he have like 11 carries that game or whatever I'm like whoa what are we missing here um but those GMS on the field that day I'm like what would you guys think if we invited this guy to the Senior Bowl he's a backup they're like are you kidding me like we want to see him so so again Old Miss fans might think that my gosh we lost Judkins but I'm excited to see what ulyses will do as more of a feature Guy what's your evaluation at this point and and maybe from conversations that that you've had with scouting Departments of Jackson Dart yeah I haven't talked to a lot of people about Dart um I saw him at the Manning Camp so that was cool that's that that that event is so valuable just to be able to go there and see those guys throw and interact with each other too like that's always interesting to see like who's the dude of who's the alpha among the alphas of that group um but yeah I mean he he I thought he made a nice jump last year and I I really hope he stays healthy um just cuz talking to some guys up there at Old Miss like and they say this because they want to talk about his toughness I guess he's really played through some stuff the last couple years you guys know better than I do but um some stuff is an understatement at the end of last year really okay yeah I mean they they do they really Rave about the guy's toughness so he's you know my biggest thing is the quarterback spot can you can you win games and he's won a lot of what they win 11 games last year is that what they won um so yeah he's Jackson's going to be in the mix I mean I think you talk about the quarterb spot it's going to be him you know Carson Beck who was here yesterday Quinn ERS who will be here today Riley Leonard at Notre Dame is a local guy for us but Riley's really good um I mean is this class going to have six quarterbacks go in the top 12 like last year no it's not uh but there's some good names can Blake shapen play his way into a to an invitation potentially yeah they all they I mean I'll I'll say it this way not even with B all these guys a year ago at this time sitting at SEC media days we didn't have a grade on Xavier leet from South Carolina I mean he was a he was a special teams guy he ran down as a a gunner on punt team he was their kick returner he had like 168 yards receiving as a junior then he comes out week one against North Carolina has like 170 some yards like more more yards than the first game than he had the previous season so we're like oh my God we got to get we got to start watching this guy and and then he ended up being one of the biggest success stories we had last year wi his first round draft pick so so these guys it's important we do all our work on the Junior and sophomore tape but I tell all our Scouts like we got to go in with an open mind Guys these guys get better so yeah shapen is a guy I'll be interested to see there's a concept in the NBA where when they're going through the draft process if a player has been in school for three four years it's a knock on him he's too old do you hear that at all in college Jackson dart's going into his fourth year getting starts is that a similar Concept in football or is it totally different totally different no totally different I think the NFL especially like at the quarterback position look at last year's class you had B Knicks with six 61 career starts in in college went I mean Denver Broncos didn't see an issue with it right you're just it the NFL is a less developmental League than it used to be um again I got into the NFL in the year 2000 and we used to be a lot more patient with players there was there was more developmental time they almost have to be ready to go the quarterbacks if you draft a quarterback up high between your fan base and your owner you're but you're getting him on the field whether you know whether he's ready or not I mean everyone would love to do a momes thing and I think New England's going to try to do that this year with Drake May um and start Jacobi brette but most of these guys are going to play right away so you better get your you better get your starts in college so no I I don't think the age thing is less of a concerned I know exactly what you're talking about with the NBA um I actually think the NFL likes it that these guys are staying in more certainly wish we had more time he's got four Super Bowl rings Jim naggie executive director of the REI Senior Bowl visiting with us at