Austin Simmons, the youngest player on the Ole Miss roster, took the practice field for the first time
As if the Ole Miss quarterback situation was not interesting enough to the outside world enter Austin Simmons to add another unique talking point to the position room.
At age 17 and the youngest player on the Ole Miss roster, Simmons arrived in Oxford to start his collegiate career when he should have been starting his junior year of high school.
Instead he is one of four scholarship quarterbacks at Ole Miss joining Jaxson Dart, Spencer Sanders and Walker Howard. Of these four he is the least likely candidate at this point to win out the starting job that is up for grabs once again.
Though on Wednesday Simmons took the practice field in an Ole Miss uniform for the first time and and mixed it up with his three contemporaries, rotating the snaps all throughout the two-hour opening practice of fall camp.
Simmons’ situation is unique just by default. Very rarely does a high school prospect reclassify by two years to be able to become eligible for college early. A junior working to become a senior is more common than what Simmons did to join Ole Miss this fall after flipping his commitment from Florida suddenly this summer.
For most of Wednesday’s practice Simmons was paired off with Howard throughout drills and offense versus defense sessions.
“He’s a good dude,” Howard said. “Coming in at such a young age, he’s a good player and I’m excited to watch him play. He’s awesome.”
The trio of Ole Miss quarterbacks are still working to get to know Simmons but the early returns are positive.
Ole Miss has a quarterback room that few other programs have this season as far as depth and experience is concerned.
Simmons only adds to that as he is a piece for the future and not necessarily the 2023 season. That did not keep head coach Lane Kiffin from working Simmons in with the other three at different points of practice.
The fourth-year Ole Miss coach is well aware of how unique his quarterback situation is this fall.
“All four guys (were) out there getting reps,” Kiffin said after Wednesday’s practice. “Rotating through with all the different units. That’s definitely as deep as we have been here.”
Simmons is currently focusing on his first football season in the Southeastern Conference but he is a two-sport player and known for his talents on the baseball diamond. It is not known if he will venture over to Oxford-University Stadium this winter or not as of now.
