College Football’s New World Order

By the time Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss made their swaggering pitch to players in the transfer portal in April 2022, they had already landed more than two-thirds of that year’s recruiting class. There was promising quarterback Jaxson Dart, who had started three games as a true freshman for USC. There was defensive tackle J.J. Pegues, a recently converted tight end out of Auburn. There was Zach Evans, a running back who’d once been the first five-star recruit in the modern era to go to TCU. And there was a deep corps of receivers, including two from in-state rival Mississippi State.