A Baton Rouge state judge signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday clearing 16 football players — out of 33 athletes who brought the suit, per the Associated Press — to play the 2026 season. It runs downstream of Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s class-wide preliminary injunction in federal court in Colorado. Three former Ole Miss starters are in that group: tight end Dae’Quan Wright (Cleveland Browns), safety Wydett Williams Jr. (Arizona Cardinals) and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, waived by New Orleans on Aug. 8.
A Baton Rouge state judge signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday clearing 16 football players — out of 33 athletes who brought the suit, per the Associated Press — to play the 2026 season. It runs downstream of Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s class-wide preliminary injunction in federal court in Colorado.
Three former Ole Miss starters are in that group: tight end Dae’Quan Wright (Cleveland Browns), safety Wydett Williams Jr. (Arizona Cardinals) and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, waived by New Orleans on Aug. 8.
The honest counterweight, and it is Pete Golding’s own: he already made the calls. On Aug. 6 he said "there was conversations with a couple of those guys from 22 that are in other camps," framed entirely as injury insurance — if someone got hurt in camp, "you would have a body to go to that has actually been in this system." If Ole Miss loses a player at a thin spot this week, that call is the right move.
But in the same answer Golding said there are "no new additions and umbrella like they did in Covid." No expanded roster, no exemption. The House settlement cap and roster limits still apply. Ole Miss is 17 days from a ranked opener with 50 new players — Golding’s number — still learning each other. This is roster math, not an argument about three players.
Then later: both starting quarterbacks in tonight’s ESPN2 high school game are committed to Ole Miss. Baylor School hosts Brentwood Academy in Chattanooga at 8 p.m. ET — MaxPreps has them No. 12 and No. 13 nationally. Keegan Croucher, a four-star and a top-five QB in the Rivals300, quarterbacks Baylor. Crews Jenkins, who threw for about 1,800 yards and 22 touchdowns last fall, quarterbacks Brentwood. Jenkins committed in May knowing Croucher was already in the class.
The counterweight there: Georgia, Kentucky and Indiana all pushed to flip Croucher this spring, per Chad Simmons of Rivals. Croucher said in April he is locked in with Ole Miss. An August commitment is still not a signature.
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