Beating Ole Miss Would Help Vols Curb Rebels' Recruiting Success in Tennessee

With one flip of an Ole Miss lid onto Drew Richmond's head, the Rebels unofficially declared war on Tennessee for the state's suddenly, surprisingly fertile recruiting grounds.

The state of Tennessee's top-ranked player and major priority for the Volunteers at offensive tackle chose Hugh Freeze's team, which is closer to his home in Memphis.

While UT will continue to recruit Richmond, the lineman's pledge to Ole Miss was the most important of a recent string of battles Freeze has won for Tennessee prospects.

Not only would a UT upset of the third-ranked Rebels in Oxford on Saturday night be a major boost to Butch Jones' program, it would give him another recruiting selling point against a new nemesis.

"Ole Miss always has made West Tennessee and the Memphis area in particular a high priority in recruiting because of its proximity to Oxford and the amount of talent there," GoVols247's Ryan Callahan told Bleacher Report. "But with the Nashville area now putting out more Division I prospects than anywhere else in Tennessee, the Rebels are one of several teams who are starting to put a lot of effort into recruiting Middle Tennessee, too."

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Ole Miss successfully reaching its recruiting efforts into the mid-state is becoming a major problem for UT.

In the past, the Vols have been forced to stave off rivals such as Alabama and Georgia for in-state kids, and James Franklin experienced success while at Vanderbilt. But Ole Miss is the newest rock in Jones' sneaker.

The Rebels currently have four commitments from the state in their 2015 recruiting class—Richmond, Nashville cornerback Ugo Amadi, Pulaski defensive back Cameron Ordway and Nashville offensive lineman Alex Givens.

All of those players at one point or another had Vols offers. UT is still heavily recruiting Richmond and Amadi, and would love to flip either.

The biggest remaining in-state prize—4-star strong-side defensive end Kyle Phillips of Nashville—is still on the market. According to Callahan (subscription required), "some believe the Rebels and Vols might be the two teams to beat." Mid-state JUCO cornerback Justin Martin is considering both, too.

Credit: 247Sports

Ole Miss isn't going away anytime soon, either. The state's top-ranked player for the 2016 class is linebacker Daniel Bituli, a teammate of Givens whom Callahan said has the Rebs and Vols as his top two teams.

Cornerback Joejuan Williams and defensive tackle Emmit Gooden are other huge 2016 in-state prospects Freeze is going head-to-head with Jones to try to land. The list goes on and on.

Freeze, who used to coach at Briarcrest Christian High School outside Memphis, spoke on this week's SEC teleconference about how improved the talent pool in Tennessee is compared to when he coached.

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Drastically, actually. I don't remember when I was there as a high school coach, and it could be because I wasn't in this world, but I believe it has increased. It seems to be increasing every year. There's tons of kids, of course the Memphis and the Nashville area, but now there's starting to be some high-profile prospects in those areas. I think it's going to continue to increase with the jobs that the high schools are doing there.

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With the talent getting better, the Rebels aren't going to quit poaching. If it's going to stop, the Vols have to stop it by winning—and Saturday is an excellent place to start.

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Given the way Freeze has quickly built that program and its current lofty status, Ole Miss is a rising power that gained major national headlines with its wins over Alabama and Texas A&M.

Jones is looking for his young team's program-defining win, and Saturday would certainly qualify.

There are a lot of similarities between the two programs, Freeze noted on the teleconference. When he looks at how the young Vols are playing, he sees a reflection of his young team a season ago—staying in games, learning how to turn immense talent into wins:

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The first thing I see is they've recruited extremely well. We can sit here all day and none of us are great coaches without players that can make plays. Coach Jones and his staff has certainly done that. They've got tremendous young talent. That's kind of the way we were after our first full recruiting class, we played a ton of freshmen just like they're doing. And those freshmen are scary. They're obviously young and make mistakes sometimes, just like ours did and still do. They're so talented. It's a scary talent because not only have they recruited well, but they're playing with a deal of hunger and passion which I think we did in our first couple years also and were in game that maybe we didn't stack up as well, but we were in a lot of games with those teams. I think that's exactly what they're proving this year. It's only a matter of time before they break through.

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Until the Vols do, Freeze has something to sell that Jones can't: a winning program.

Last year, Jones lived up to his decree upon being hired in Knoxville that UT would own the state, signing 10 players from the Volunteer State. He reiterated that to ESPN.com's Chris Low after this year's national signing day when he said, "We've got to own this state."

UT signed nine of the top 11 players in the state in last year's class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, an unbelievable haul that is paying immediate dividends.

This season, the Vols have commitments from just three of the top 14, and the Rebels have the same number.

"Tennessee is still recruiting well in the Nashville area and getting a good number of the in-state players it really wants, but Ole Miss is one of the teams that's making things a bit more difficult for the Vols," Callahan said. "UT and Ole Miss often are two of the first teams to offer prospects from Tennessee, and the Vols now are battling the Rebels for several of the state's top prospects."

Though Jones has put together another incredible class anyway that is currently ranked third nationally, supplementing it with guys such as Richmond and Phillips would be massive.

To do that, Tennessee will have to hold off Freeze, who is coming after Jones' state with a highly ranked team and a ton of momentum.

The Vols can squelch some of that this weekend. Asking for a win is a tall order, but getting one could pay dividends both immediately and in the future.

All quotes gathered firsthand and all recruiting information taken from 247Sports, unless otherwise noted.

Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.