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Ole Miss recruiting: Willie Gay announces official visit list, will attend Egg Bowl

The four-star linebacker will be in town for the regular season finale; five-star Walker Little will visit for the Georgia game; and Tennessee is getting creative with it's recruitment of four-star Trey Smith.

By Zach Berry
Student Sports

After Willie Gay sent Ole Miss fans into panic mode with his decision last month to show up to a camp at Mississippi State instead of one in Oxford, the four-star linebacker calmed things down last week by reaffirming his commitment to the Rebels (for good measure, the Starkville native threw up the Landshark in a recent photo shoot for The Clarion-Ledger). That doesn't mean, however, that he won't continue to shop around.

On Tuesday, Gay released a list of the official visits he plans to take this season.

The first takeaway from that list is that all of the visits are in the fall, meaning Gay won't be attending any school's postseason crootin bonanzas. Also, he has told Rivals' Chase Parham that he is planning on graduating in December. Both of these things are very good for Ole Miss.

One, Gay won't be on an opposing college's campus to receive a one-on-one meeting with a head coach. There won't be an opportunity for a Jim Harbaugh or a Dabo Swinney to bring up the NCAA investigation. And two, getting him on campus in Oxford as quick as possible is the best thing for the particular position that he plays. So if these official visits hold up and he graduates in December, this is very good news for Hugh Freeze and Co.

5-star Walker Little will visit Oxford in September.

It is no secret that Ole Miss' top target at offensive tackle is the five-star from Houston, Tex. Now, they will get a chance to impress him early. The No. 23 overall player in the country told Scout's Greg Powers that he plans on visiting Oxford when they take on the Georgia Bulldogs on September 24th.

Ole Miss lost all five of it's starters from 2015 and return just 36 starts. So to say that Matt Luke wants to continue to recruit like a mad man on the offensive line is an understatement. The five-star is the perfect fit the Rebs' hurry up no huddle attack and he just so happens to be teammates with another top croot Hugh Freeze is after: five-star defensive tackle and No. 3 overall player in the country Marvin Wilson.

Butch Jones hired 4-star Trey Smith's sister.

The big man from Jackson, Tenn. is definitely the second top target for the Rebs at tackle, if not tied for first with Little. The No. 51 player in the country has Ole Miss in his top six along with the in-state Volunteers, who just happened to hire Trey's older sister to be a personal adviser for the football program. She had previously worked on the women's basketball staff for four years. (Before you start jeering about Butch Jones' crootin tactics, remember that Ole Miss hired Shea Patterson's brother a month after the five-star QB committed to Ole Miss.) In an interview with Scout's Chad Simmons, the younger Smith assures the fans that his sister's hiring won't impact his recruitment.

That could be true, but 247Sports' Crystal Ball seems to think otherwise: it's now 100 percent in favor of the Vols. Working in the Rebels' favor is the fact that they were Smith's first offer and he visits Oxford a good bit. His recruitment could go down to the wire on Signing Day.