'He Does Everything Right': JJ Pegues Celebrates Cedric Johnson Receiving Chucky Mullins Award
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss Rebels announced on Thursday that senior defensive end Cedric Johnson was awarded the Chucky Mullins Courage Award entering the 2023 season.
The honor is bestowed annually to an Ole Miss defensive player to honor the late Chucky Mullins whose Rebels career was cut short in a 1989 homecoming game against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Senior defensive lineman JJ Pegues was available to meet with reporters on Friday and spoke highly of Johnson, a teammate who helped Pegues adjust to Ole Miss after transferring in from Auburn ahead of the 2022 season.
"Cedric deserves the [Chucky Mullins] award," Pegues told the local media. "He does everything right. Everyone in the defensive line room goes as he goes. If he goes hard we go hard. He always gives us motivational tools and just extra stuff to keep us up and is always bringing positive energy. He deserves it and I'm happy for him."
The Rebels are nearly three weeks into their fall camp and Pegues expressed how his position group has adapted to the new scheme implemented by defensive coordinator Pete Golding.
"We have a special group," Pegues said. "Just being able to adapt to the new defense. We move fast, we have a lot of guys who are twitchy like [Jared Ivey] and [Cedric Johnson]. I feel like coach Golding has done a great job of putting us in the right place at the right time."
Ole Miss held its first scrimmages last weekend and the defense gave the offense trouble throughout practice, particularly the Rebels' defensive front. Pegues mentioned that defensive line coach Randall Joyner played a big reason why the front seven found success getting in the backfield.
"Coach Joyner does a great job," Pegues said. "He just tells us to keep the main thing, the main thing, and the rest will play out. Going into scrimmages, we just tried to treat it like a gameday just to get into the right routine. We do a great job at keeping the main thing, the main thing."
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