Ole Miss starting center will miss spring ball following surgery, per report
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Ole Miss will be without starting center Brycen Sanders during spring football as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery.
Jake Thompson, who covers Ole Miss for On3, reported the bad news on Sanders on Wednesday morning. The mammoth 6-foot-6, 310-pound anchor of Ole Miss’s offensive line helped the Rebels reach uncharted territory in 2025 despite a late-season coaching change with Lane Kiffin bolting for LSU and Pete Golding taking over.
Sanders was invaluable piece for the high-octane Ole Miss offense that helped the Rebels advance all the way to the College Football Playoff semifinals. But the key signee from the Rebels’ 2023 recruiting class is going to be shut down for the spring as he deals with the aftermath of the shoulder surgery.
The Chattanooga, Tenn., native redshirted during that first season in 2023, then got rolling, playing in all 13 games in 2024 before becoming the starting center this past season and playing in all 15 games.
Sanders posted a photo on his Instagram account lying down in his hospital bed, flashing athletes’ familiar thumbs up to show that he’s doing well despite being in recovery mode.
Even though Sanders played in every game during Ole Miss’s special 2025 season, it doesn’t mean he was healthy for every game. Quite the contrary, as Sanders was reportedly playing through a torn rotator cuff since all the way back in Week 4. He also had a torn labrum that will be dealt with through rehab instead of surgery.
Needless to say, Sanders paid a steep price for gutting his way through this past season, and now he’s reportedly got a long road ahead to get back on the field this fall.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
