Football is officially back in Oxford.

Ole Miss begins the spring period Tuesday with the first spring practice of 2018. The Rebels will end the spring period in Oxford with the Grove Bowl on Saturday, April 7.

Before the players hit the practice field, Matt Luke met with the local media to discuss his thoughts on the upcoming spring period. Here are the highlights of his press conference:

  • OUT FOR SPRING: D’Vaughn Pennamon, Dawson Knox, Benito Jones, Qaadir Sheppard, Austrian Robinson, Eli Johnson
  • LIMITED: Alex Givens, DeMarcus Gregory, Scotty Phillips, Sean Rawlings, C.J. Miller, Ken Weber
  • POSITION CHANGES: Armani Ritten: RB, Vernon Dasher: Star/OLB, Brendan Williams: DE
  • Time to expand the playbook? I think so because we are so far ahead of where we were last fall, due to the fact we’ve kept the same offensive and defensive systems in place.
  • What do you hope to learn about this time? I want to see the culture continue to change. It’s not offense vs. defense, it’s a team. I want to see who is going to lead.
  • It appears, based on your recruiting, you made a priority to get bigger bodies. Is that an accurate assessment? For sure, we always want to get bigger athletes. To stop the run, you have to do that. The size of our guys, we needed to improve that.
  • Biggest concern heading into spring? We’ve had some injuries, so depth on the offensive line. We should get all those guys back…. Also, excited to see what Matt Corral will do.
  • Are you concerned about any of these injured players being available for the fall? Oh no. They should all be fine for the fall. They are leaders, that’s why we need some guys to step up there.