Not many folks take Houston Nutt’s protestations about grayshirting and oversigning seriously, but after reading the story of Maikhail Miller, a quarterback in this year’s Ole Miss class who’s been told he’s a grayshirt candidate, I concede that we may need to cut the Nuttster some slack.
… Miller said he has not closely followed the oversigning discussions of SEC presidents and coaches.
He’s currently enrolled in summer school and working out at team facilities. He said Nutt first approached he and his family about the possibility of grayshirting in late November or early December.
At the time, the Rebels had two scholarship quarterbacks and were in the mix for two more, junior college transfer Zack Stoudt and West Virginia transfer Barry Brunetti.
Veteran Nathan Stanley has since left the program, and Brunetti and Randall Mackey, a junior college transfer who redshirted in 2010, have an edge on Stoudt going into August camp.
“I really didn’t understand what it (grayshirt) was at first, but when coach Nutt got down to what it really is, he would tell me about it every time we walked to make sure I knew what it was all about,” Miller said.
Miller explored options after the grayshirt discussion, talking with Southern Mississippi and taking an official visit to Arkansas State.
“I was serious, but the facilities and all that, it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t the SEC,” he said.
Miller visited several spring practices and Ole Miss and is focused on moving ahead with his college career.
“I think there are benefits,” he said. “My parents thought it would be a good thing. I still have a scholarship when it comes time to go to school, and you still have four years of eligibility. It’s not that bad at all.”
So Nutt told the kid and his parents about grayshirting and gave him the opportunity to explore going to other schools. In response and after weighing his options, Miller decided he preferred to be at an SEC school as a grayshirt than immediately enrolled elsewhere. Sorry, oversigning fanatics, but I’m not seeing a problem here.
It sounds to me like the way Nutt engaged with Miller is exactly what Richt referred to and approved of a couple of weeks ago.
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