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Lane Kiffin completed his portal class, for now, on the last day any students could attend their first class and still enroll for the spring. He did it with a big addition too.
Georgia Tech defensive end transfer Jared Ivey made his move official by attending class this morning. The 6’6” 275 lb. redshirt freshman from Suwanee, GA started eleven games for the Ramblin’ Wreck, collecting 32 tackles, one forced fumble, and 1.5 sacks.
Ivey didn’t come out of nowhere either, leaving high school as a 4-star player, the On3 composite’s #307 prospect in the class of 2020. As an aside, if Ivey had signed with the Rebels, he would have ranked as the #5 player in Kiffin’s inaugural class. Ivey, however, was seen as a bit of a project, as he only weighed 215 pounds when he signed with Georgia Tech.
He had incredible athleticism, performing a 360 degree dunk in a high school basketball game, but it was tough to know whether he could gain the weight needed to play defensive end in a Power Five conference.
Fast forward two seasons, and Ivey transfers to the Rebels as a 275 pound end with lots of athleticism. While his stats in his first year as a starter don’t jump off the page, 32 tackles is solid for an end, especially for a team that frequently lined up in 3-down sets. I don’t expect him to be a pass rushing specialist, but if he can get off blocks enough to regularly disrupt the backfield, he will have done his job in helping Cedric Johnson on the other side.
While the defensive end position battle hasn’t even technically begun, Ivey likely didn’t transfer to Ole Miss to be a rotational piece.
I’m going to do a deep dive on what the portal yielded for Ole Miss this season soon, but Lane Kiffin found another big piece of the puzzle today.