Willie Gay is one of the top linebackers in the 2017 recruiting class. On National Signing Day, the four-star had three front-runners: LSU, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss. The Starkville, Miss., native decided to stay local, picking the hometown Bulldogs over both LSU and Ole Miss, which happens to be MSU’s biggest rival.
NCAA news has 4-star who picked MSU over Ole Miss feeling good about that choice
Ole Miss’ NCAA problems are great news for rivals.
Ole Miss is now in more NCAA trouble than it was before, after the NCAA added eight allegations of wrongdoing to its previous list of 13, leading the Rebels to self-impose a bowl ban for 2017. The situation’s a mess, and Gay feels fortunate not to be part of it.
Gay’s tweet is catnip for MSU fans, of course, but it gets to a larger problem for Ole Miss. The Rebels’ situation right now is a slowly building fire, and a lot of recruits aren’t going to want to run into it until it’s extinguished.
Currently, Ole Miss’ only punishment is the one-year bowl ban it put on itself. Any further punishment will hurt more in recruiting, and it’s possible it leads to an exodus of transferring players. That could deplete Hugh Freeze’s program of talent and make Ole Miss noncompetitive in the SEC West for years.
That doesn’t even get into potential scholarship or visit reductions, which would limit how much talent Ole Miss could bring into the fold to replace whoever departs. Playing in college football’s toughest division wouldn’t make a comeback easier, either.
Gay chose a program with certainty and stability. Ole Miss doesn’t clearly have either at the moment, and that should mean a recruiting edge for Mississippi State and every other team that regularly competes with the Rebels on the trail.
