A bond since 'day one' between Jeremiah Jean-Bapiste and Lane Kiffin landed him at Ole Miss
Linebacker was a position of need this offseason for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin went back to recruit a familiar name in Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste to help rebuild the group.
There is a “bond,” between Kiffin and Jean-Baptiste is one that goes back several years and long before either man stepped foot on the Ole Miss campus for the first time. Though Oxford plays a role in how his story ends as well.
Coming out of high school Jean-Baptiste received his first offer from Kiffin, who was the then-head coach at Florida Atlantic. The two started their relationship there but Jean-Baptiste eventually ended up at Central Florida.
Before making his choice to start his college career in Orlando Jean-Baptiste took his last official visit at Ole Miss.
“I’m pretty blessed to be here because me and coach Kiffin go way back,” Jean-Baptiste said following Thursday. “Just him giving me the opportunity to be here (I’m) grateful. …Me and coach Kiffin had that bond since day one. It was pretty much a no-brainer. Coming out of high school my last official visit was to Ole Miss. So, it’s kind of a no-brainer to come here and finish what I was supposed to start here.”
Now Jean-Baptiste is at Ole Miss and spending the spring getting acclimated with a new team and and new scheme.
The challenge of making the move to a new school, town and environment is hard enough in the summer. But to make the move mid-school year and jump right in to spring practices is a whole other challenge.
Jean-Baptiste is getting first hand experience in this with learning a new defensive installation by new Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding. The last four weeks of spring have been invaluable to Jean-Baptiste.
“Spring is a time to be a coachable moment for you to get accustomed to the system and also learn a defense so you can play fast and physical in the fall,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Me getting these 15 practices was amazing for me. Just learning the system and seeing what coach Golding thinks and how he calls things. Just being able to pick his brain was good for me.”
Golding also coaches the linebackers, giving Jean-Baptiste the ability to be around the coach all practice.
“Coach Golding’s a very smart man,” Jean-Baptiste said. “He likes to make the offense react to us instead of us reacting to them. That’s one thing I can say for sure, us being able to play fast.”
A position change middle linebacker has made also created more opportunity since coming to Ole Miss.
Jean-Baptiste is now a leader of the defense when he is on the field. With the added responsibility he is taking the opportunity to work on his tackling and help make the defense as a whole play faster and be the aggressor.
Getting to Oxford the same time Golding did has allowed all of this to go smoother over the last four weeks of practice.
“Coach Golding coming in has been a major blessing,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Him coming from Alabama, and being one of my coaches here, I’m very fortunate. Obviously his background, he’s coached a lot of the best linebackers and me being here, I wanted the best coaching I could. I just so happened to catch him coming down here and that was perfect for me, a perfect opportunity for me.”
Watch Jean-Baptiste’s full press conference below. Video provided by Ole Miss Sports Productions.
