THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Friday, April 29, 2016
T H E S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S I S S I P P I S E R V I N G O L E M I S S A N D OX F O R D S I N C E 1 9 1 1
LAQUON TREADWELL Minnesota Vikings
LAREMY TUNSIL
Miami Dolphins
Volume 104, No. 131
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ROBERT NKEMDICHE
GAME
Arizona Cardinals
CHANGERS
For the first time, three Rebels were chosen in the first round of the NFL Draft COLLIN BRISTER
Hugh Freeze expected this day on Feb. 6, 2013 when Robert Nkemdiche, Laremy Tunsil and Laquon Treadwell signed with Ole Miss. He knew, when he garnered their signatures that day in February, they’d likely be gone in three years. I’d bet he wanted them to be gone in three years. The highly-coveted prospects that Freeze signed that day weren’t prospects anymore last night. They were professionals, gone to professional teams to play professional football.
Over the next three months Nkemdiche, Tunsil and Treadwell will sign multi-million dollar deals with Miami, Minnesota, and Arizona . They’ll sign endorsement deals, and they’ll be more wealthy than 90 percent of the world. They’ll play for, hopefully, a long time. They won’t play another Saturday together in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, but the impact those three had on a football program that was looking for life will be felt for many, many years. When Freeze got to Oxford
see more coverage A recap of day one of the NFL Draft Page 12
in 2011, Ole Miss was coming off its worst season in school history. The Rebels had just gone 2-10 and weren’t competitive with the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech, not to mention the Bulldogs they played from Georgia or Mississippi State. Ole Miss had no hope, no life, no energy and was, for lack of a better phrase, left for dead by Houston Nutt. Freeze took over in December of 2011 and got to work. He recruited the best he could with two months before signing day, and signed some key
components to Ole Miss’ roster. The Rebels fought their way to six wins in 2012 based solely off heart, guts and sheer competitiveness. I was in the stadium when Ole Miss beat Mississippi State that night in 2012 to clinch a bowl game. To a short-sighted kid from Eupora, the only thing I remember was Ole Miss shutting Dan Mullen up after losing to him the past three years. Ole Miss won the Egg Bowl that night, sure, but they likely garnered so much more.
Reality tells us that Tunsil, Nkemdiche and Treadwell likely wouldn’t have signed with a program that went 5-7 and missed a bowl game for the third consecutive year. Reality tells us that they will sign with Oklahoma, Georgia, Clemson or some other high level program. The reality was, however, that Ole Miss did win that game. The reality was, however, that Ole Miss changed their program forever that night. It’s a disservice to guys like Trae Elston, Mike Hilton and C.J. Johnson to only credit
SEE GAME PAGE 10