OXFORD - Ole Miss isn’t trying to replace Princewill Umanmielen with one player. The Rebels are treating it like a collective job.
That’s the message from defensive coordinator Bryan Brown as Ole Miss moves into 2026 after losing its sack leader to LSU and former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin. Umanmielen paced the team with nine sacks in 2025, four more than anyone else on the roster, and his departure leaves a clear hole on the edge.
Brown’s answer is depth, pressure from different levels and a front that works together.
"I think just doing it as a group," Brown said Aug. 18.
"I think the whole front, the second-level guys if we end up blitzing those guys as well. The edges.
But I think up front we're doing it as a group, and it's really good to see so far that we have multiple guys stepping up and doing their main thing."
Ole Miss is leaning on transfers Blake Purchase and Jonathan Maldonado to help make that happen. Purchase, who came over from Oregon, had two sacks in 2025. Maldonado, a Nevada transfer, finished last season with five.
Suntarine Perkins also remains a major part of the pass-rush equation. Listed as a linebacker, he can move down to the line of scrimmage on blitzes, giving Ole Miss another weapon off the edge. Perkins had 4.5 sacks in 2025, trailing only returners Kam Franklin and Will Echoles, who each had five.
Brown said the Rebels are also seeing leadership emerge in places he wanted it to.
In the spring, he said one of his goals was to develop more vocal leaders. Now, he says Will Echoles is making real progress there.
"I think Will Echoles has done a tremendous job of trying to be a vocal leader, for sure," Brown said of the projected 2027 first-round NFL draft pick. "He's a quiet guy in general, but he's shown a little bit more vocal leadership."
Brown also singled out transfer linebackers Keaton Thomas and Luke Ferrelli. Thomas, who came from Baylor, led the Bears with 105 total tackles in 2025. Ferrelli, a California transfer, was No. 2 on Cal with 91 tackles last season.
"It's great to have guys like those who have been around the game and done some really good things in this league or wherever they came from," Brown said.
Ferrelli’s path to Oxford has not been simple. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney accused Ole Miss of tampering with him after Ferrelli had transferred to Clemson, and the NCAA is still investigating without a decision announced.
Perkins, meanwhile, added another honor to his résumé when he was named the 2026 Chucky Mullins Courage Award winner on Aug. 8. Brown said he fully supports the choice.
The award is Ole Miss’ highest individual honor and goes each year to an upperclassman on defense who shows courage, leadership, perseverance and determination. It is named for Chucky Mullins, the Ole Miss defender who was paralyzed while making a tackle in a 1989 homecoming game against Vanderbilt and died in 1991 from complications related to that injury.
Perkins, a senior from Raleigh, has played in all 41 games Ole Miss has played since his freshman season in 2023.
"Perk, he embodies everything that Chucky meant, and all the things that Chucky stood for," Brown said. "That's Suntarine Perkins.
'Get,' as we call him. To have a guy from Mississippi that's doing things the right way, going about his business on and off the football field the right way, it's nobody more deserving than Suntarine to get the award.
I'm glad that he's still here and on the squad."
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