Ole Miss is out of the first week of preseason camp, and while there’s still a long runway before the Rebels open the 2026 season against Louisville on Sept. 6 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, some early patterns are already coming into focus.
The picture is still incomplete. Media has only been allowed to watch two practices this month, with one more viewing coming before the program opens things up further. Even so, there’s enough movement inside the Manning Center to draw a first pass at who is climbing and who is sliding.
Up front, the clearest rise appears to be Tommy Kinsler IV at right tackle. Ole Miss already has its left side settled with Terez Davis, who picked up momentum for that job during spring camp, and Kinsler now looks like the leading candidate on the other edge. The senior Miami transfer is 6-foot-6 and 355 pounds, and sources say he has started to pull away from the rest of the group.
He’s also the most seasoned option in the mix. Kinsler has played in 19 games over three seasons at Miami, including 12 last season as the Hurricanes marched to the National Championship Game.
He spent that run backing up Francis Mauigoa, the eventual first-round NFL draft pick. Kinsler has one year of eligibility left after the 2026 season.
Connor Howes is another name on the rise, even if he looks more like a future piece than an immediate answer. At 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds, he has the size and tools to matter at SEC level, and Ole Miss has been encouraged by his steady progress under John Garrison. John David Baker also pointed to Howes this week as one of the Rebels’ options at right tackle.
Howes is entering his sophomore season after appearing in all 15 games as a true freshman last year, though his offensive snaps were limited. He’s still a long shot to start in Week 1, but his stock is moving up and he could carve out more work early.
Johntay Cook II has been one of the offseason’s consistent standouts, and the expectation now is that he becomes Trinidad Chambliss’ top slot target. Ole Miss believes he can finally become the kind of meaningful contributor people projected when he arrived as a top-ranked national recruit.
Cook’s 2025 season at Syracuse offered a reminder of what he can do when the ball finds him. As a junior, he led the team with 549 receiving yards and 45 catches, and he also finished with two touchdowns.
Darrell Gill Jr., the other Syracuse transfer, has not generated nearly as much buzz. That’s a notable shift for a player who was one of the Orange’s best weapons a year ago. Gill led Syracuse with five touchdowns and posted 506 receiving yards, while his 15.8 yards per catch was the best on the team among receivers with at least two catches.
After three seasons at Syracuse, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound receiver entered the portal as a consensus four-star and ranked among the top 27 receivers available in this cycle. But so far, he hasn’t become a frequent topic of camp chatter. That can change, and it may not matter this early, but in a crowded receiver room it’s not the kind of momentum Ole Miss wants to see stall.
The biggest downtrend belongs to Carius Curne. On paper, the former LSU tackle looked like one of the splashiest portal additions of the offseason.
He was a consensus four-star coming out of high school and one of the top five offensive line transfers available. As a true freshman at LSU, he played meaningful snaps at both tackle spots over 10 games, gaining valuable experience in the SEC trenches.
But the spring was rough. Sources described his practice work as “underwhelming,” and the semester ended with legal trouble in his home state of Arkansas. It was a rocky first year, and while the long-term upside is still there, the momentum is headed the wrong way for now.
There’s no urgency to force the issue, though. Curne has already banked a substantial amount of experience for a freshman offensive lineman, and he’s only entering his sophomore season. For the moment, the talent remains, but the trajectory is not as encouraging as Ole Miss hoped when it landed him.
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