OXFORD, miss. – As we prepare for Week 1 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to kick off the 2024 Ole Miss football season, the Rebel Walk team will be highlighting one player each day, explaining who they are, how they got here and what we expect from each one.
Today we take a look at the No. 15 player on our list, safety John Saunders Jr.
It seems that Ole Miss has added to or improved nearly every position on the field this offseason, and the secondary is no exception. Ole Miss has arguably the deepest safety corps in the SEC and has looked at many different lineup combinations for the position. However, we are now looking for a key returner who is expected to continue to perform well in the back end of Ole Miss’ defense.
Let’s dive in and learn a little more about No. 15 John Saunders, Jr.
How did John Saunders Jr. come to Ole Miss?
In high school, Saunders Jr. was a two-way player at High Point Christian School in North Carolina and also showed off his skills on offense, totaling over 30 touchdowns in his junior season. Perhaps most impressively, he threw for 19 touchdowns and scored 12 more through a combination of rushing and receiving – a true jack-of-all-trades on offense.
In his stat-rich senior year, Saunders Jr. was named an All-State selection while rushing for over 900 yards and 17 touchdowns on offense. On defense, he had six interceptions and 16 pass defenses. As a team captain, he was voted Most Valuable Player by his teammates.
Saunders Jr. committed to play at Miami (OH) after high school, where he would primarily focus on defense. He played three seasons at Miami (OH) before transferring to Ole Miss in December 2022.
Career prospects
Saunders Jr. has been a productive player everywhere he has played, and his career production has increased each year. In Miami (OH), he recorded a pick-six in his first career game in 2020 against Cincinnati.
During the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Saunders Jr. was a key player for Chuck Martin’s defensive group in Miami (OH). He played 22 games for the Redhawks in his final two seasons and totaled 67 tackles during his tenure there. He recorded a team-high 15 passes defensed in 2022.
After arriving in Oxford in 2023, Saunders Jr. was extremely productive under new defensive coordinator Pete Golding, starting all 13 games for the Rebels last season. Saunders recorded 65 tackles (39 solo), a new career high, three interceptions and was rated the best defender on Ole Miss’ team last year by PFF College Football with a grade of 79.1.
For his play, he was named to the Second Team All-SEC by the College Football Network.
On the way to 2024
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the secondary has been revamped by adding new players, creating one of the strongest position groups on the Ole Miss roster. At the head of this group is none other than John Saunders Jr.
Saunders is listed at 6’2″ and 215 pounds. Last year, he earned a PFF coverage grade of 80.3, which was the best on Ole Miss’ defense. PFF also graded the returning safeties in the SEC, where he was ranked sixth in the entire league. One of the reasons for his high coverage grade is his past as a wide receiver, although he has good size for a safety. Saunders plays the game with good instincts and has a gift for chasing the ball in the air. His length and quickness allow him to cover good yardage, and he can track the quarterback’s eyes well. Also in the run game, Saunders is excellent at attacking lanes. As a sophomore, he will need to continue to improve his run defense. Last season, we also saw Saunders start some games as a nickel corner.
Expect Saunders to be a starting defensive player again this year.
Camp Notes
In camp, Saunders made a key interception in the redzone during one of our media sessions. He can expect another year of continuity with Pete Golding and safety coach Wes Neighbors III, which will pay off for Saunders considering how demanding the safety position is. Other notable safeties in camp include Louis Moore, Yam Banks, Key Lawrence, Trey Lawrence and Nick Cull.
One new relationship to keep an eye on is that between Sanders and new co-defensive coordinator Bryan Brown. The former Rebel player joined the team in January after most recently playing with Scott Satterfield at Appalachian State, Louisville and Cincinnati.
So look for John Saunders, Jr. when the season begins on August 31 at Vaught-Hemingway against Furman!
TJ Oxley
TJ Oxley is the Vice President of Operations and Director of Community Relations at The Rebel Walk. He is also the Director of Basketball Content and Senior Basketball Writer. He has over five years of experience producing in-depth analysis of college basketball across multiple platforms. An Ole Miss MBA alum, TJ started at The Rebel Walk in 2019.
