Ole Miss football has whopping number of players added to East-West Shrine Bowl 1000 watchlist

The East-West Shrine Bowl may not be as high profile of an All-Star game as the Reese's Senior Bowl, but it's just as important. Today, the Shrine Bowl team dropped 1000 eligible players to their watchlist.

20 Ole Miss players landed on the watchlist, with no other team having as many players. Only five other teams had 17 or more players on the watchlist, with the others being Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, Florida State, and TCU.

Ole Miss had just two players at the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl, Daijahn Antony and Deantre Prince. Attending the Shrine Bowl may have helped both their draft stocks, with Anthony and Prince being two of three Rebel players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft. The other, Cedric Johnson, attended the Senior Bowl.

The 20 Ole Miss players on the East-West Shrine Bowl 1000 watchlist are as follows.

Princely Umanmielen, Antwane Wells, Tre Harris, Caden Prieskorn, Jaxson Dart, Micah Pettus, J.J. Pegues, Jared Ivey, Ulysses Bentley, Khari Coleman, Yam Banks, Julius Buelow, Trey Amos, Jeremy James, Key Lawrence, Nate Kalepo, Logan Diggs, Jordan Watkins, Caleb Warren, and Gerquan Scott.

Nine of the 20 players on the watchlist have transferred to Ole Miss this off-season, with eight more who have transferred from other teams previously. This shows how vital Lane Kiffin and his staff have viewed the transfer portal in identifying talent and convincing them to commit.

Not all these players will attend the East-West Shrine Bowl. Some will choose to go to the Senior Bowl, and others will not make the final list of players in December.

Roster building will be necessary for Ole Miss in 2025

One thing this list does show is that Ole Miss will have plenty of holes to fill next season. Lane Kiffin does not have to worry about that too much now, with the 2024 season looming. However, it will be at the back of his mind.

Utilizing the transfer portal will be as important as ever during the 2025 off-season. Kiffin and his staff are pretty good at it, having had a top-three portal class the last three seasons. The 2025 recruiting class is rolling along nicely, with opportunities for freshmen to potentially see game time.

Currently, Kiffin will focus on fall camp as we slowly creep toward week 1 on August 31.