Ole Miss to host free Meet The Rebels Day Saturday in Oxford

Ole Miss opened the Manning Center to the public Saturday for a free Meet The Rebels Day, giving fans a rare chance to get close to the 2026 football team while spring drills remained closed to outsiders. The event ran from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Olivia and Archie Manning Athletics Performance Center, with the Q&A program starting at 10 a.m. on a stage at the north end of the indoor field.

The setup was built for families, longtime season-ticket holders and young fans hoping to see players in person. Ole Miss said fans could enter through the south entrance and line up along Manning Way, with open parking available west of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, including the SJB Pavilion garage and the coliseum lot. Admission was free, and The Grove Collective was listed as a presenting partner with VIP opportunities.

The day centered on access. Fans could visit with players for autographs, but Ole Miss limited each person to one signed item per player, and coaches were not available for signatures. The program also included trophy photos with The Golden Egg, the Magnolia Bowl and the Sugar Bowl trophies, turning the event into a hands-on stop for Oxford-area children and parents who wanted more than a look through the fence.

David Kellum hosted a RebTalk Q&A with head coach Pete Golding, other Ole Miss coaches and Keith Carter, the university’s vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics. That mix of football voices and athletic leadership gave the event a larger purpose than a simple autograph session: it was one of the few public touchpoints during a spring in which Ole Miss began drills March 27, kept practices closed and went without a spring game.

The return of Meet The Rebels Day also fit a bigger local pattern. The event had not been held since 2019 before coming back in 2025 after the COVID-era suspension, and this year it landed on the same Saturday as the Double Decker Arts Festival and baseball games at Swayze Field. That crowded Oxford calendar made parking and traffic part of the calculation for families coming from Lafayette County and beyond, but it also underscored why Ole Miss keeps using fan day to bridge the gap between the program and the public.

Students have described the event as a chance to speak with players face to face, and some fans have pointed to rising names such as Trinidad Chambliss as part of that appeal. In a spring without a game, the Manning Center became the clear focal point for the Rebels’ connection to Oxford.