OXFORD | The day before the Fiesta Bowl, Ole Miss sent a message that now looks even sharper in hindsight: Terez Davis was staying HOME in 2026.
At the time, Davis wasn’t even a starting offensive tackle yet. But the Rebels were willing to pay him like someone who could be. The social media push came amid an aggressive offer from LSU and Lane Kiffin, and Ole Miss made sure everyone knew how much it valued the lineman’s decision to stick around.
Now, with Davis firmly locked into the left tackle job, that bet has paid off in a major way. One of Ole Miss’ biggest preseason questions has started to fade on a roster that appears headed for another College Football Playoff run.
Inside the building, though, this never felt like a surprise.
“Terez is a freak of nature and super smart,” starting guard Patrick Kutas said. “He's dedicated and one of the guys who's always going to be in the film room.
I'll come up here at 8 p.m. and I see his car. Terez is here, too.
You know what you're getting.”
Davis arrived at Ole Miss after playing nearly 300 snaps at tackle for Maryland as a freshman in 2024. He started in a loss at Oregon and appeared in 10 games before transferring. But his first year in Oxford didn’t come with the same immediate splash.
The 6-foot-4, 300-pound lineman logged just 58 offensive snaps last season, and only eight came in SEC play. All but seven of those snaps were at left tackle. Even with that limited sample, PFF College rated Davis as the highest-graded Ole Miss offensive lineman when competition level was taken into account.
“You knew he could do it,” center Brycen Sanders said. “He's probably the strongest offensive lineman we have, and I'm excited to share the line with him.
We're going to be as good as last year at tackle. When you have (the line coaches we have) they are going to get them right.
We have a long camp to get them right.”
Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding has also made it clear Davis earned the staff’s trust. Golding praised him regularly during Rebel Road Trip stops this summer, and Davis has turned that backing into a real strength for the team despite the limited game reps.
The spot opposite him is still unsettled, with Tommy Kinsler possibly in the lead, but Davis has taken plenty of pressure off that battle. The left side, at least, is spoken for.
“Coming into the SEC, it's different, and he understood that,” Kutas said. “You just saw the potential immediately though.
How he carries himself. He's a different animal from last year, for sure.”
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A Colorado judges ruling has opened a new eligibility lane for college athletes in the 2022 high school class who did not redshirt or turn pro, but for Ole Miss it has landed more as a roster-management question than an immediate recruiting opportunity. Pete Golding said the Rebels are monitoring the situation, which is still fluid as the NCAA appeals the decision, but the coaching staff is also weighing how any late addition would fit into a roster already shaped by modern scholarship limits and late-summer timing.
Goldings stance leaves the door only slightly ajar, with the Rebels apparently content to wait and see how the appeal and the larger eligibility picture develop. For a program trying to keep its depth chart organized heading into the season, the ruling matters most if circumstances change dramatically, and an injury could still alter how aggressively Ole Miss would choose to react. [Read more 🡒]
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Among the newcomers drawing attention are Blake Purchase, Horatio Fields and Jaheim Oatis, each of whom is in the mix for meaningful playing time. Coaches and analysts have pointed to their size and physical tools as reasons they could change the look of the lineup, but camp is where the real test begins, and the pressure is only going to rise from here. [Read more 🡒]