Lane Kiffin made the nearly 3-hour drive east from Oxford to downtown Birmingham. It was the first week of December, and with Ole Miss idle during conference championship week, Kiffin elected to sit on the bleachers on a cold, rainy Thursday night at Protective Stadium to watch the Alabama AHSAA 5A championship game between Pike Road and Pleasant Grove.

Why? Quinshon Judkins.

The Ole Miss pledge made it worth Kiffin’s while. Judkins went for 173 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns on 33 carries in a 51-14 Pike Road victory. As Kiffin later said, Judkins “put the team on his shoulders.” Kiffin stayed for the whole game so that he could talk to Judkins after his memorable night.

In some ways, it was fitting that Kiffin was there by himself to watch Judkins, It’s not that Judkins lacked serious interest. He had plenty of that as a guy who ran for over 4,000 yards in his high school career. The likes of Auburn, Florida State, Notre Dame and Tennessee were a few of the many who pursued the Pike Road (Ala.) star, who dealt with an early-season hamstring injury in 2021. But 2 weeks after Kiffin’s in-person visit, Judkins signed with Ole Miss as a 3-star recruit and the No. 46 running back in the 2022 class.

Ten months later, it’s hard to fathom that ranking. If you didn’t know any better from watching Judkins, you would’ve assumed he was a blue-chip recruit who had an immediate path to playing time.

Through Week 5, Judkins ranks:

  • No. 2 in the SEC in rushing yards (535)
  • No. 1 in the SEC in rushing TDs (6)
  • No. 1 in SEC in rushes of 20 yards (7)
  • No. 1 among SEC RBs in overall PFF grade (84.8)
  • No. 1 among FBS freshmen in rushing yards

That was all on display in his SEC debut against Kentucky when Judkins ripped off his 3rd 100-yard game of his young career, which included a 48-yard touchdown run.

As you noticed from that clip, Judkins reached his max speed of 22.5 MPH as he was crossing the goal line. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops came away impressed by watching the true freshman rack up yards against his top-20 defense. Stoops said Judkins was “very explosive, very tough to get down, good balance, speed.”

He took it a step further with his praise.

“(Judkins) has potential to be one of the big-time players in this league. He already is,” the Kentucky coach said. “Sky’s the limit for him … he’s a complete back at a young age.”

It’s hard to argue with that.

It’s rare to see a true freshman who wasn’t even a top-500 recruit nationally walk into the SEC and immediately become a dynamic skill player for a top-10 team. Sure, it helps that Judkins has been able to operate behind a veteran offensive line, and all but 1 of Kiffin’s ground games since 2014 have averaged at least 200 yards per game. It’s not a surprise to see a tailback thrive in the Kiffin offense.

But spend any time watching Judkins and you’ll see why he’s not just a byproduct of his surroundings. He entered Week 5 ranked No. 2 in FBS with 33 forced missed tackles behind only preseason All-American Bijan Robinson.

Yep, that’ll play in the SEC.

“He has ultra-unique vision and great body and balance control,” Kiffin said. “Just a very tough kid who was raised really well.”

Kiffin is certainly a fan of the Judkins family. When Ole Miss tweeted out a graphic showing that Judkins led FBS freshmen in rushing, his mom, Teva, quote-tweeted it and said “prepare to witness his realist year” with a shushing emoji. Naturally, Kiffin quote-tweeted that with a skull crossbones and a rat emoji, jokingly advising her not to fall victim to the “rat poison.”

Needless to say, she obliged:

In her defense, it’s hard not to be enticed by the promise her son showed through 5 games.

In a backfield that was expected to be all about transfers Zach Evans and Ulysses Bentley after losing last year’s top 3 running backs (2 to the NFL and 1 to transfer), it’s Judkins who has been the most dynamic playmaker of the bunch. Judkins’ emergence was expedited by the fact that both Evans and Bentley dealt with injuries in the first part of the season. While Ole Miss took the first few games to evaluate the quarterback position, Judkins was busy carving out a role for himself.

With Evans limited with what Kiffin called “a medical issue” the past 2 games, Judkins out-snapped the TCU transfer 99-48. Evans leaving the Tulsa game early resulted in a career-best 140 yards on 27 carries for Judkins.  Ideally, they’ll operate as complementary backs and lead one of the nation’s top 5 rushing attacks, which is exactly what they’ve been so far. There’s plenty of volume in the up-tempo, run-heavy offense to make that a possibility. Only 2 Power 5 teams (Minnesota and Arkansas) averaged more rushing attempts per game than Ole Miss through Week 5.

He definitely has the respect of the rest of the running back room. Before he played in his first game, Evans called Judkins “the most improved” and added that he had a “bright future” while Bentley admitted that watching Judkins was a reminder that “I’ve got to get going, too.”

Kiffin heaped plenty of praise on Judkins during his first camp in Oxford and said he was immediately going to be part of Ole Miss’ offensive plans. But as sold as he was on the ability of the All-State running back, there was no guarantee he’d pop this much from the jump.

“I think you never know what’s going to happen with freshmen once they get there and once they play in games … that’s always kind of a roll the dice as to what’s really going to happen, otherwise every 5-star player would be great as freshmen,” Kiffin said.

Judkins does already appear to be great. He’s well on his way to becoming the first true freshman to rush for 1,000 yards since, ironically enough, former Ole Miss quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, who is now at UCF. Judkins won’t get any Plumlee comps any time soon, but Kiffin did liken the true freshman to an All-American that he saw up close during his days as an assistant at USC.

Nope. Back up. Not Reggie Bush.

Former USC safety Troy Polamalu was the comp for the quiet, calm Judkins.

Why?

“Unbelievable off the field and the switch would go and (Polamalu) would just wanna knock everybody out on the field,” Kiffin said. “(Judkins) kind of reminds me of that off the field. It’s really neat. He was raised really well.”

Last December, there was some late speculation on recruiting sites that Judkins would drop the Ole Miss commitment he made in September and sign with someone else in the Early Signing Period. That never happened. What instead happened was Judkins signed on the dotted line and he told The Montgomery Independent afterward that “there was no bigger moment” for him than having a career night to win a state title with Kiffin in attendance.

Search Judkins’ name on Twitter after one of his highlight reel runs and there’s a good chance you’ll find someone referencing the picture of a layered-up Kiffin by himself in the bleachers watching the future Ole Miss star.

Ten months later, we can assume that Kiffin would’ve sat through a hurricane if he knew the waves Judkins would make.