At SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze was joined by three senior Rebels: TE Evan Engram, DT D.J. Jones and QB Chad Kelly.

Check out what the three Rebels had to say to the media:

Senior TE Evan Engram

On coming to SEC Media Days:
“I’m really enjoying myself today. I take pride and I’m very honored to be representing our
team and our university. It’s fun, and it’s a great atmosphere. Football is in the air, and
there’s a lot of excitement around this place.”

On finding a place in the offensive schemes:
“Definitely. That was most of the conversation with the coaching staff when I was making
my decision to come back, so all that stuff is going to take place in the game plan once we
get into the season. Right now, we’re just building chemistry and working on basics and
attacking our workouts together. We’re getting the team ready and the team chemistry
levels up working as an offense, defense, and as a team overall.”

On the NCAA investigation and if it has created a distraction in the locker room:
“No, no it hasn’t. Not at all, actually. As a team, we’ve been talking to prepare inside out. We
don’t worry about outsiders. It doesn’t matter, we have people taking care of that. We just
worry about football. We show up to work every day to get better and work toward our
goals, which are winning in Atlanta and competing for a national championship. So all the
outside stuff, we’re not paying attention to it, and we’re definitely not letting it distract us.”

On competing in the SEC West:
“I like to call it pretty much a gauntlet. It’s powerhouses, week in and week out. With our
schedule this year, it’s really tough at the beginning – pretty much a big punch up front. We
have Florida State, and two weeks later we play Alabama. It goes on from there. But I think
that’s competing in the SEC, and that’s why it’s so successful: the competition and the way
teams push each other. We take pride in it, and we work each and every day. We want to be
the team to take the cake this year, so we accept the challenge week in and week out.”

Senior DT D.J. Jones

On the message from Coach Freeze on the allegations:
“Stay the course. We have bigger things going on. We have a season coming up and a big
game in September. So just stay the course.”

On how he thinks Coach Freeze is handling the allegation:
“I think he is handling it well. The way he speaks, I already know he is a great speaker so I
think he is handling it how he is supposed to.”

On what he likes about his defensive line:
“I think we are a faster defensive line. We are a little more powerful. So I think as a unit we
will get better.”

Senior QB Chad Kelly

On having a great guy to throw to:
“I think we have some great wide receivers. We got Quincy Adeboyejo, Evan Engram,
Derrick Jones. We have a whole armful of people and they are working really hard and
understand the offense. They have been in it for a couple of years and are ready to get back
at it.”

On what it is going to be like starting the season off playing Florida State:
“Well it is going to be huge anytime we play a team like Florida State, they have had some
great years. And if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. It going to be a great
game. They have some great players. They are good on defense and their offense is pretty
good too. So we just need to make sure we score more points than they do.”

On beating Alabama back-to-back and how they did it:
“Well I think our coaching staff does a good job of getting us prepared. Starting with Coach
Freeze and Coach Werner, they do a good job of getting me prepared as a quarterback
understanding situations and what we are looking to call for certain situations. It comes
down to execution during the game, and we just have better execution than they do. It
starts with practice and what we do. It starts right now out in summer practices.”

On his time at Clemson and on meeting them later in a potential playoff game:
“I have learned so great thing from Coach Morris. One of the biggest things I took from
Clemson was to always run off the field all times. You should always, no matter it’s a
practice field or stadium. Wherever you are, you better run off the field. Not only that but
just building relationships with people, some of my friends are still on the team today. I
hate that it turned out that way, but I made a relationship for a lifetime. Reflecting on the
whole career, I was in a blessed situations and I might have been immature at times, but I
am glad God has guided me through tough times into where I am today.”

On coming off the Sugar Bowl and the difference of preparation this season to last season:
“A lot of it is just getting timing down for those wide receivers that are coming in and did
not understand what it is like to be a college player. Within the past month they have really
grown in the field room and on the field. As long as they can go out and be prepared for
how fast the game speed is going and not have to think. As long as we keep working hard
good things will happen.”