OXFORD — Ole Miss opened spring football practice Tuesday on a sunny, windy morning in Oxford.

Some observations:

— I’ll start with the obvious. Holy hell, there are a ton of new faces. Ole Miss passed out a roster, thank God. I referenced it at least 30 times in the 45 minutes or so we were provided viewing access. Repeatedly, I caught myself asking myself, “Who is that?” Then I would find the answer on the roster and say to myself, “Oh, I forgot he was here.” Wild times.

— Lane Kiffin said as much Tuesday, noting that now more than ever that building culture and treating a team like a completely brand new team is important.

— Austin Simmons looks very comfortable at quarterback. The rest of that room is new and/or green. Pierce Clarkson and AJ Maddox were getting lots of reps in the portion of practice available to media.

— The running back room is obviously deeper. Overall, it looks better, but they were just going through drills and stuff. I really like the way Kewan Lacy looks. Kiffin said the way he moves, Lacy could be “elite.” That said, it’s too early to put that label on him.

— The same really applies for wide receiver and tight end. Just physically, they look better there. There’s more length and athleticism, but again, what we saw was routes on air, so it’s tough to judge much.

— The “starting” offensive line in early portion of practice running through places versus air was Cam East, Delano Townsend, Patrick Kutas, PJ Wilkins and Percy Lewis. If you view that as the “starting” offensive line, here on March 18, that’s kind of on you. I cite it as a way to point out how many new faces there are on the roster.

— I saw a few recruits there. One was Wyndmoor, Pa., four-star quarterback Gavin Sidwar. He’s got more than 17 offers already. He’s scheduled to visit Missouri later this week and Syracuse early next week. Another was Tuscaloosa, Ala., three-star wide receiver Kahden Smith. Smith has at least eight offers, including one from Ole Miss. He has an official visit scheduled to Stanford later this month.

— Someone asked if field storming was going to negatively impact recruiting. Shoot me.