Ole Miss Rebels and Pete Golding are serious contenders for top transfer portal target they need to keep away from SEC rivals

Former five-star QB recruit Deuce Knight could apparently land with Ole Miss Rebels now that Lane Kiffin is gone

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor
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The transfer portal is set to open and the Ole Miss Rebels are already apparently in prime position to make a move for one of the best players available.

Ole Miss’ new head coach Pete Golding has made it clear that this offseason’s transfer portal strategy will be more focused on player retention than replacement, which will be a bit different than it has been for Ole Miss recently. However, that doesn’t mean that they won’t take swings on top tier talents that could completely reshape the program’s future. That’s where Deuce Knight, Auburn’s young star quarterback transferring out, comes in.

Deuce Knight could land with Ole Miss Rebels via transfer portal

For those unfamiliar with Deuce Knight, he’s a former five-star quarterback talent from the state of Mississippi who once had the Ole Miss Rebels firmly in the mix as a potential landing spot for his services. Lane Kiffin and his staff pursued him aggressively for a long time as he was rising quickly up recruiting rankings throughout high school. Knight visited with the Rebels several times, more so than any other program besides Auburn and Notre Dame (the two programs where he was committed as a recruit).

Now that he’s back on the open market, it’s quickly become apparent to many sources around the recruiting industry that Knight is once again highly considering his home-state school (On3’s article on this point for example in post below).

As A to Z Sports just broke this week, Knight is visiting Boston College for his first trip after entering the transfer portal. However, after that, it’s becoming increasingly likely that Ole Miss makes the list for him very soon too. Some have speculated that he could land at a few other SEC schools like LSU or Alabama — even perhaps with his old commitment home, Notre Dame. Unfortunately for those programs, there isn’t nearly as much evidence that he would be interested now (or that the programs would be in some cases). Meanwhile, Ole Miss has a lot going for it.

Ole Miss’ case for landing star quarterback Deuce Knight

First off, Ole Miss is Deuce Knight’s in-state school, and he was already extremely interested there before. Second, some close to the program and his initial recruitment believe that Lane Kiffin was actually perhaps a hindrance in landing him out of high school. Many who believe this haven’t gone as far as publicly saying this explicitly, but some in local media have hinted at this likely fact. Now that Kiffin is gone, the school where Deuce Knight rushed the field last fall after defeating Georgia 28-10 looks to have a chance at landing him. In case you may have forgotten, or were unaware, that’s exactly what Knight did after Ole Miss beat Georgia (as you can see in Ari Wasserman’s post below) in 2024.

Knight was clearly all about visiting Ole Miss frequently, even when he was already committed to Notre Dame or Auburn throughout his recruiting process. Pete Golding was already one of the few central recruiting figures on the team when they were pursuing Knight before. Now he’s the head coach. The question will be, can Golding and his staff convince Knight to come compete with Austin Simmons for the starting quarterback role? And could Trinidad Chambliss’ waiver situation with the NCAA to possibly play in 2026 also impact Knight’s decision?

Knight was already errantly forced to sit out nearly his entire true freshman season with Auburn. Would he be willing to perhaps risk that kind of situation again? Or is he looking for a guaranteed starting opportunity? Those questions are still unanswered as of this writing, but according to sources at On3 and across the entire recruiting industry, Ole Miss is already a program to watch (alongside Boston College and maybe Texas A&M) with this possibly elite quarterback talent.

We’ll be back with more Ole Miss Rebels coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

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