OXFORD | JJ Pegues did a little of everything during his first time wearing Ole Miss colors in front of fans inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The Oxford native, who transferred from Auburn during the offseason, had two sacks during the Grove Bowl on Saturday, using his quickness inside effectively during the scrimmage.

He also caught a two-point conversion from Kinkead Dent, highlighting that Pegues played both sides of the ball during his two-year stint with the Tigers.

“(The coaches) just threw me in there and said go catch a touchdown,” Pegues said. “It felt like high school, and I couldn’t let all my Oxford natives down, so I just had to do what I had to do… The rest is history. Never worked on it in practice, at all.”

The 6-foot-2, 315-pounder played 193 snaps at tight end at Auburn, with 184 of those coming in his true freshman season in 2020. In 2021, Pegues played 204 snaps on the defensive line. He’s expected to spend all of his time on defense with Ole Miss.

The Rebels have quickly upgraded their talent and depth along the defensive line, developing high school signees and junior college additions and adding Pegues, Georgia Tech transfer Jared Ivey and TCU transfer Khari Coleman.

“I think our defensive line’s been deeper all camp,” head coach Lane Kiffin said. “Some of those guys being new, they added that. I think, by far, our biggest positional change since we got here would be that group. It went from our weakest link, to maybe our strongest.”

Defensive tackle KD Hill and defensive end Cedric Johnson have taken Pegues under their guidance since he arrived at the start of the semester. With an influx of transfers, it’s important to establish cohesiveness as quickly as possible.

Hill and Johnson are helping Pegues with that part, and he’s been impressed with the multiple looks and movement with the defensive front, led by position coach Randall Joyner.

“I feel good, really good (with the system),” Pegues said. “How we go to a three-down, four-down and do different things up front. The way they are using me and KD Hill and (Johnson) to move us around and give the offense different looks.

“It’s really the culture here, KD and Ced bringing us along and showing us what they do and small things — running after plays and thing like that. And after you have everyone feeling like they are a part of something, naturally you’ll make plays. We came here and naturally are doing what we need to do.”

Pegues was a four-star tight end out of Oxford in 2020. He committed to the Tigers in December 2019.

Now back home and with the dress rehearsal of a spring game done, the next time will be for real. And Pegues used Saturday to get used to the change.

“It felt surreal, not going to lie,” Pegues said. “Just me being used to being in the stands and playing against them on a different team. It felt really good to be here and playing in the Vaught.”