Ole Miss true freshman WR Winston Watkins named SEC freshman player of the week

The season keeps on getting better and better for the Ole Miss Rebels. Their offense was already truly formidable with Trinidad Chambliss, Kewan Lacy, De'Zhaun Stribling, Dae'Quan Wright, and Harrison Wallace III, among others.

Building on that, they got another addition to their elite pool via a breakout performance against Oklahoma this Saturday.

Freshman WR Winston Watkins's crucial 40-yard passes in the fourth quarter that helped the Rebels build a lead put all the spotlight on him.

And the spotlight continues to shine on him in this week's SEC freshman player of the week.

Watkins was named the SEC freshman player of the week for his 111 yards for four catches vs. Oklahoma.

Here are some stats that reflect his breakout performance against the Sooners.

• Turned in a career day in leading Ole Miss to a road win at No. 11 Oklahoma.
• Led the team with a career-high 111 receiving yards on four catches.
• It marks the most yards by a Rebel freshman since Elijah Moore had 129 vs. South Carolina in 2018.
• Hauled in a pair of crucial 40-yard passes in the fourth quarter, the first of which helped set up the go-ahead score.

Even head coach Lane Kiffin had plenty of praise for Watkins's performance.

"We don’t get a lot of, as you know, a lot of elite guys right out of high school. We have to go and kind of find them, mold them or portal them here. Just one of the things here that if you’re going to do it really well, you got to do this in evaluations and all that," Kiffin said in his post-game conference.

"But Winnie wasn’t a secret. I just say we don’t get many guys like that that can come in and play like him. That’s because of his mindset, too. He has a very elite mindset, very much Elijah Moore-ish and that allows him, for the moment, to not be too big. We started playing him a lot more as the season’s gone on because of how many plays he makes in practice."

There will be plenty of games still for the Fort Myers native to further decorate his resume this season, and most likely in the postseason as well.

Ole Miss takes on South Carolina next on Nov. 1 at the Vaught-Hemingway.