Transfer Linebacker Tony Mitchell No Longer With Ole Miss

Ole Miss' linebacker room got a little bit thinner this fall.

Mississippi Rebels Head Coach Pete Golding looks on during warm ups prior to the game against the Auburn Tigers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss On SI has learned that transfer linebacker Tony Mitchell is no longer with the Ole Miss Rebels. 

Multiple sources indicated that the Rebels removed the former five-star high school recruit from the roster in late September for reasons currently unknown. 

Following the 2025 regular season at Mississippi State, Mitchell opted to enter the transfer portal where he would eventually commit to Pete Golding’s Rebels up the road in January. Mitchell arrived in Oxford to join the Rebels’ safety room, but made the transition to linebacker during spring ball. 

There were plenty of connections for Mitchell at the Manning Center that helped make the fit look logical.   

“I think Tony, obviously we recruited (him) at Alabama out of high school, he’s very athletic,” Head coach Pete Golding said of Mitchell during the spring. “Tony kind of grew out of the safety position from a body type standpoint, he’s about 240 pounds right now — really athletic and linebacker comes a lot more natural to Tony than Tony thinks it does. I think some of those DB guys — ‘I’m a DB’ and you start putting them in the box like ‘Coach, what the hell are we doing here?’

But he allows us from some coverage versatility standpoint to kind of use him as a Money and rotate coverages away from him and things like that because we like his coverage ability. I’ve been really pleased with his instincts in the box, which is always something that’s the concern of a guy that hasn’t played that position because he had put physicality on tape.”

It is worth noting that the 6-foot-1, 240-pound defender will still have collegiate eligibility following the 2026 season, and will likely eventually wind up in the transfer portal again. 

High-Profile Background

Mar 21, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Defensive backs Caleb McDougle (45) and Tony Mitchell (27) work against each other during practice at the University Alabama Thursday. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

As a 2023 high school prospect at Thompson (Alabaster, AL), Mitchell signed with the Alabama Crimson Tide during the 2023 recruiting cycle as a top-150 prospect in America where he appeared in seven games as a true freshman in Tuscaloosa. Though Golding left Alabama during the 2023 offseason, he played a critical role in the Tide landing Mitchell. His finalists at the time included Auburn, Georgia and Texas A&M. 

However, after just one season with the Tide, Mitchell would take the JUCO route and spent his 2024 campaign with East Mississippi. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound defensive back was ranked as No. 1 JUCO safety as well as the No. 2 national JUCO prospect by recruiting services during the 2025 cycle. Ole Miss and Mississippi State re-offered Mitchell following the 2024 season.  

In 11 games with the Bulldogs in his return to the SEC, Mitchell recorded 28 total tackles (19 solo) including four tackles for loss during the 2025 season. Mitchell dressed for the Rebels in games against Louisville and Charlotte, but did not log a snap in either contest.

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