Mississippi State signed eight prospects and Ole Miss signed seven to round out their 2018 football recruiting classes on Wednesday’s national signing day. Mississippi State landed two four-star prospects and six three-stars, and Ole Miss finished with one four-star, five three-stars and one two-star. The Bulldogs’ total class now stands at 23, and the Rebels’ at 22.

With new head coach Joe Moorhead taking over on Nov. 29, Mississippi State didn’t have much time to try and cobble together a recruiting class.

The signing of four-star Olive Branch defensive end Fabien Lovett came with plenty of drama. Lovett had previously been committed to the Bulldogs before decommitting last month. Lovett tweeted that his father was not letting him sign with the Bulldogs and wanted him to go somewhere else. On Wednesday, Lovett tweeted out his father was allowing him to sign after all, and Lovett penned his letter of intent to Mississippi State.

In addition to Lovett, safety/linebacker Aaron Brule was another big get for the Bulldogs. The Louisiana prospect decommitted from Georgia and will have a chance to see early playing time in Starkville.

Mississippi State signed three-star cornerback Jaylon Reed, also from Olive Branch, and Pearl’s Johnquarise Patterson, who filled a big position of need at wide receiver and could see some early action with the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs missed out on several offensive line prospects, and made a late offer to Kameron Jones to try and alleviate that, but will still need to bring in a lot of linemen in the future.
For Ole Miss, the biggest signee was four-star wide receiver Miles Battle, who had committed on Monday.

The Rebels missed out on several of their top targets, with Marquez Ezzard, Tank Jenkins, Jaylen Moody, Joseph Foucha and Tommy Bush all signing elsewhere. The biggest of those misses is definitely Jenkins, as without him, the Rebels added only one offensive lineman in their class and could be thin there next season.

Overall, Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke was pleased with the players Ole Miss brought in.

“We’re really excited about this class,” Luke said. “A lot of credit goes to our staff and what they were able to do.”

Luke said two-star athlete Tylan Knight of Pearl could end up being the sleeper of the class, but the staff will have to decide whether he is best suited as a defensive back, running back or wide receiver. Knight could also be in competition for a kick returner role.

Also with a chance to make an immediate impact is junior college defensive tackle Noah Jefferson. Jefferson played at Southern California before transferring to Arizona Western College and should be able to parlay that experience into quality time on the defensive line. Jefferson stands at 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 330 pounds.

“Defensively, on the line I think it was important for us to add size, and we were able to do that which was big,” Luke said.