OXFORD — Diego Pounds admitted Tuesday he doesn’t know a lot about the Ole Miss-LSU rivalry.
The North Carolina transfer, now Ole Miss’ starting left tackle while Jayden Williams recovers from a knee injury, said this past Saturday’s game in Columbia, S.C., was the loudest environment he’d ever played in.
He’s been told this Saturday’s game at No. 13 LSU (6:30 p.m., ABC) will be much louder.
Pounds, a 6-foot-6, 340-pounder from Raleigh, N.C., said he’s learned to just trust his teammates.
“Since I’m a transfer, I don’t really feel what they feel for it, but these are my brothers and I would trust everything they say,” Pounds said Tuesday after the ninth-ranked Rebels’ practice. “They don’t like LSU. It’s a rivalry and I’m going to treat it exactly like a rivalry. At the end of the day, it’s just football. I’ve just figured out this whole Magnolia Bowl trophy. I’m new to it and I don’t know the deep roots about it, but if it’s a rivalry, it’s a rivalry, so I just treat every game like that.”
Pounds said preparing for Tiger Stadium is a daily thing, with huge speakers at practice mimicking the sounds of Baton Rouge.
“You just have to really key in to the quarterback’s clap,” Pounds said. “If you can’t hear the clap, you have to watch the ball but you just have to make sure everybody’s on the same page.”
Pounds said he’s also getting help from Williams, who has been in the Ole Miss program for three seasons.
“I’m actually sad he got hurt,” Pounds said. “Me and Jayden are really close friends and he’s just sitting there helping me out, helping me get ready every day, too. Even if it’s just from the sideline or if he’s telling me about what this player is doing on the field, he’s just helping me out.”
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Kelly has high praise for Rebels: LSU coach Brian Kelly is 1-1 versus Ole Miss since taking over at LSU. He defeated the Rebels in Baton Rouge in 2022 before losing in Oxford last October.
On Monday, Kelly said the Rebels are improved from the team that beat his Tigers a year ago en route to an 11-2 season and a win over Penn State in the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl.
”I would say if you look at their team last year to this year, they're just playing great defense," Kelly said.
Ole Miss is allowing just 7.5 points per game and has given up just 1.8 yards per rush through six contests.
"Walter Nolen, I think we all know about him in terms of what he's been able to do in this league," Kelly said. "Off the edge, Princely (Umanmielen) is a guy that really balances their pass rush. And then in the backfield, Trey Amos is an outstanding corner right here from Louisiana."
Kelly said he also also believes the Ole Miss defensive coaching staff has done more than just recruit talented players to that side of the ball in Oxford.
"This is not just, 'Hey, we got them in the transfer portal, and they are who they are,'" Kelly said. "They have developed them as well, so they're better football players across the board.”
LSU injury update: Kelly said Monday three injured starters are expected to return to practice this week. Asked Monday whether freshman running back Caden Durham, senior wide receiver CJ Daniels and senior cornerback Zy Alexander would practice, Kelly said simply, “Yes.”
LSU will have to release daily availability reports beginning Wednesday night, according to SEC policy that went into effect this season, and then issue a final report 90 minutes before kickoff at Saturday evening.
Per the Baton Rouge Advocate, Durham suffered a foot injury in the first half of LSU's 42-10 win over South Alabama that Kelly said was not a "major injury.”
Durham has become LSU's leading rusher with 29 carries for 244 yards and three touchdowns this season. While making his first start, he recorded 217 total yards and two touchdowns on 10 touches against South Alabama.
Daniels "aggravated an old knee injury," Kelly said last week, creating concern because he once suffered an ACL injury while playing at Liberty. Daniels, LSU's fourth-leading receiver, has 20 catches for 239 yards. He has started all five games this season.
"We got good reports on it," Kelly told The Advocate. "We were obviously concerned because he had an ACL. It was not an ACL. Those are things that, at first, you're concerned. But it turned out to be the best-case scenario for us.”
Alexander suffered a concussion Sept. 21 in LSU's 34-17 win over UCLA and missed the Tigers' next game. Alexander has made two starts after recovering from a torn ACL.
