‘When football is good, it’s good for everybody’: Mike Clement and a busy fall for Ole Miss baseball
Ole Miss hosts recruiting visitors for every home football weekend, regardless of opponent.
Lane Kiffin and Co. also share the wealth.
The size of the list fluctuates with the schedule, but prospects can always been found on the sidelines prior to kickoff and in a section of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium exclusively reserved for them.
Typically mixed in with the four and five-stars and their families are targets for other sports, too, and the defending national champion Rebel baseball team is almost always well-represented.
But they won’t be there Saturday, when Ole Miss (3-0) hosts Tulsa (2-1) at 3 p.m. CT.
Mike Bianco’s right-hand men and lead recruiters Mike Clement (hitting coach) and Carl Lafferty (pitching coach) are on the road recruiting in Phoenix, Arizona, and Fort Myers, Florida, respectively.
However, a potential Top 12 showdown with Kentucky next week?
Count them in.
“Tulsa’s not as good as Kentucky, so we kind of have to find this balance,” Clement said, in today’s edition of Talk of Champions, an Ole Miss-exclusive podcast in association with the Ole Miss Spirit.
“Laff and I will both be on the road this weekend. We’ll go watch games (of high-school prospects and potential Ole Miss targets). Obviously next weekend is a big weekend (and) kids want to come to campus. It’s a balancing act. I’ve been here eight years now through some really, really good football seasons. Some not-so-good football seasons.
“When football is good, man, it’s good for everybody. It’s good for us, it’s good for basketball, the whole deal. The cool thing about Ole Miss is no matter what the football record is, it’s a pretty good time to come to campus.
“Obviously coach Kiffin has got it rolling. They’re really good.”
Clement also discussed Baseball America ranking the Rebels’ recruiting class No. 2 in the country, the fall intrasquad season opening next week, the plan for two-sport Rebel Tywone Malone and much more.
