Whiskey Wednesday’s Thursday Recruiting Hangover: Another Defensive Back Nearing An Announcement?

Happy Thursday everyone! Before we dive into recruiting miscellania, let me point out something that we as a fan base are definitely taking for granted: last Saturday, Ole Miss fielded a beat-up team full of newcomers, including a first-year starter at quarterback, caught all sorts of bad breaks, and beat the #7 team in the country on the back of two fourth-quarter defensive stands. I think the fact that said #7 team was wearing Kentucky uniforms may have had some effect on how the win was perceived, but UK is a damn good team that nobody wants to play.

And while some have harped on an illegal motion penalty that took UK’s go-ahead touchdown off the board, the officials apparently thought the Wildcats went an entire game without any holding, block in the back, pass interference, late hit, or facemask penalties; not exactly “Home Cookin’,” as a Clarion Ledger headline writer phrased it. Further, one official did a conspicuously bad job attempting to get out of Quinshon Judkins’ way, taking seven points off the board for Ole Miss in the fourth quarter. What I’m saying is that Kentucky was lucky to be in position to win at the end.

Anyways, among the members of the full-capacity crowd at VHS Saturday was an unexpected visitor: one Marvin Burks, jr. Burks was not on any visitor list I saw prior to the weekend, and it’s unlikely the four-star safety from St. Louis just happened to be in the neighborhood. The inference here is that Burks, a one-time heavy Ole Miss lean, who in recent weeks was said to be trending to Mizzou… now appears to be a heavy Ole Miss lean again.

Burks is rated the #337 player in the 2023 class by On3’s composite rankings, the #32 safety, and the #10 player from Missouri. His Hudl highlights show a physical defender who squares up for the big hit, easily outruns most of the players on the field, and attacks the ball in the air (he has some film at wide receiver too).

Should Burks commit to Ole Miss (and we are expecting him to), he would be the fourth defensive back in the 2023 class, joining Braxton Myers, Ahmad Brown, and Daniel Demery.

In other recruiting news, all three 2023 Ole Miss commits from within Mississippi state lines were selected to the MS/AL All-Star Game roster. Suntarine Perkins, Ayden Williams, and Jamarious Brown all made the cut (not shockingly, as they are all consensus top-5 players within the state). Ole Miss targets Dante Dowdell and Isaac Smith also made the list.