Matt Luke and his new coaching staff have been hot on the recruiting trail early in this recruiting cycle. Ole Miss has added 15 recruits to the class of 2020 all in the month of June, giving them 20 total commitments from rising high school seniors.
Headlining these strong early commitments is dual-threat quarterback Robby Ashford out of Hoover, Alabama. The four-star passer listed at 6’2 and 204 pounds chose Ole Miss over Auburn, Florida and Florida State on Monday after a campus visit last week. Ashford will also play baseball for Ole Miss, but Rebel fans should be extremely excited to see what he can do in Rich Rodriguez’s offense.
“This process was far from easy and my decision was made based upon where I felt most at home, as well as which university has my best interest in mind academically and athletically,” Ashford said in a tweet.
Ashford’s arrival in the super-young quarterback room puts instant pressure on everyone vying for that position behind Matt Corral in the depth chart.
The Rebels also added a four-star pass catcher to match on Tuesday. Kris Abrams-Draine also had interest from West Virginia, LSU and Arkansas. He’s the fifth commitment from the state of Alabama.
Ashford and Abrams-Draine joined fellow four-star prospects Eric Reed and Josaih Hayes, who will help out on the defensive side of the ball.
Reed, a defensive back from Shreveport, Louisiana, attends Calvary Baptist Academy, the alma mater of Cleveland Browns 2019 draft pick Greedy Williams who was a consensus All-American for LSU last year. Hayes hails from Horn Lake, Mississippi and chose to commit to his home state despite collecting offers from all teams over the top of the SEC, including Alabama, Georgia and LSU.
So far, the rest of the class of 2020 includes players that have impressed the Ole Miss coaches in camps this offseason. While some of them don’t hold a national ranking, they’ll have a full senior season to show what they have on the field. Sixteen three-stars have pledged to play for Matt Luke.
Ole Miss has already put together a very balanced class with at least one commitment at each position group. They have a quarterback, running back, two receivers, a tight end and three offensive linemen. On the defense, they’ve added three linemen, two linebackers and three defensive backs. There are also three versatile athletes who can move around the field to any position of need.
De’Rickey Wright is one of those athletes. Listed as 6’4, 220 pounds, Wright could patrol the interior of the defense as an outside linebacker or defensive end.
Ole Miss’s hot start in this recruiting cycle has them sitting at No. 14 in the nation right around the likes of Texas A&M and Oklahoma in the recruiting rankings. While it is extremely early, Matt Luke and his staff have to be happy considering the splash commitments consistently coming in almost every day with no signs of slowing down.
