By Billy Watkins
Patrick Kutas doesn’t mince his words.
Ask him a question and he will deliver a straight-forward answer with no fluff. For instance: What is a Saturday like in the trenches of an SEC football game?
“It’s organized chaos, like a demolition crew,” said Kutas, an established guard on Ole Miss’ offensive line. “And especially for us. We play so fast — especially last year — and communicate so well that we’re firing on all cylinders and we’re messing dudes up left and right. It’s such a satisfying feeling.”
How does he get psyched up every seven days during the grind of a season to do it again?
“I don’t really have to get psyched up,” he said. “It’s just in me. I mean, I’m getting fired up and all that, but most of the time that’s during warmups. On game days, I’m usually calm, listen to stuff like Fleetwood Mac. I don’t have to find a place to go and get ready to play with intensity. That’s just what I do.”
Raw words from the heart. And they come from a guy who doesn’t carry a “look at me” attitude off the field, according to people who know him well.
During a hectic time, Kutas traveled last weekend to the wedding of his best friend — a former Arkansas teammate. That’s loyalty.
So as spring drills wind down, I wanted his take to this question: What does he like about the current status of the 2026 team?
“We’re really competitive and we love football. I like that,” Kutas said. “Coach (Pete Golding) brought in guys and told them during recruiting how it was going to be. He told them this is not like other programs.
“They made the choice to come here. I made the choice to stay (for his senior year). We know the success we can have so why not bust our butts every day to get it. That’s this team’s attitude.”
Even with Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy — perhaps the top quarterback and running back in the nation, respectively — some early prognosticators aren’t giving Ole Miss the love the folks in Oxford believe they should.
Kutas pays it no attention.
“Our expectation is that we’re going to be great,” he said. “We’re going to be the best offense and best defense around. So we have to go out there every day and work toward it.”
Kutas said that is where Golding has made perhaps his most impressive mark during spring.
“He’s done a great job of keeping the main thing the main thing,” he explained. “Sometimes, it’ll be a long day and it’s tough to come back out (with energy) that next day. But that’s when Coach instills in our heads that we GET to come back out and that we have the opportunity to do something great again this year. It’s not a burden. No, we GET to do this again.”
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Kutas was rated a four-star defensive lineman out of Christian Brothers High School in Memphis by Rivals’ recruiting service. His final four college choices were Arkansas, Oregon, Illinois and Florida State. Ole Miss did not recruit him.
He played offense and defense, but most colleges wanted him on defense.
“It came down to my decision, honestly,” he said. “I really thought my highest ceiling was on the offensive side of the ball. I thought my athletic ability on defense would transfer well to offense.”
He started 13 games for the Razorbacks while battling injuries over his final two seasons in Fayetteville. Arkansas went 4-6 and 7-6 during that time.
Kutas entered the 2025 transfer portal as the No. 1 interior lineman available. He has lived up to the billing in Oxford.
One of the reasons he chose Ole Miss was what he saw during a 63-31 thrashing of the Hogs in 2024 in Fayetteville.
“Their players had such good energy,” he said. “They looked like they were excited to play and had bought into the culture of the program. You could tell by the way they played and approached everything.”
Now, Kutas is one of the leaders who preaches culture by his actions rather than words.
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With a new season just four months away, some players don’t care to talk about the previous year.
But In Ole Miss’ case, it’s an important subject: The Rebels won 13 games and finished No. 3 in the final AP poll, defeated Georgia in the second round of the playoffs in a game that was physically brutal. They led Miami until the final seconds in a semifinals matchup, which was another slugfest.
They were that close from playing for the national championship.
I was interested in what those games — and all of 2025 — meant for the players’ confidence — especially the offensive line.
“Guys who were here went through it. The new guys either saw it on TV or have seen film of it,” Kutas said. “We know now what we can do. Proving it to ourselves was everything. And now when people talk about Ole Miss, it’s not for the wrong reasons. They talk about Ole Miss because we’re dominant.”
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