Miami (Gulliver Prep) wide receiver Conner Vernon appeared pretty lukewarm towards Ole Miss last week, but that changed on Thursday when Vernon got an offer from the Rebels.

"I actually called up to Ole Miss today and I talked with coach (Ron) Dickerson and he told me I had an offer from Ole Miss," Vernon said on Thursday evening. "He put me on the phone with coach (Chris) Vaughn and we talked. Coach Vaughn told me how they want me at Ole Miss."

Last week, it appeared Ole Miss was still in the evaluation phase with Vernon and wanted to get him to camp for further evaluation, but that suddenly changed, evidently after Vaughn enlightened the other Rebel staff about his evaluation of Vernon during spring practice according to Vernon.

Vaughn wasn't the only college coaches who have been impressed by the 6-foot-1, 180 pound athlete with 4.4 speed.

Conner had an impressive 180 receiving yards with two touchdowns in Gulliver Prep's spring game in front of coaches from Wake Forest and Duke. Both schools offered soon afterwards. What was even more impressive about Conner's performance was that he was going against Gulliver's first team defense and he notched those statistics in only three quarters of play.

Ole Miss is also recruiting Frankie Telfort, Frank Crawford, Artice Kellam, and Darian Mallory off Vernon's Gulliver squad. The Rebels have offered all four, with the exception of Mallory.

Mallory hinted last week that all five may show up at Ole Miss camp in July and the offer has changed Vernon from being "iffy" for a camp appearance to a sure thing.

"I'm definitely going in July," Conner said. "I think it's around July 16 -I don't know about the other guys, but I'm going and I want to see the campus. Boston College is the only campus I've seen, so I want to see Ole Miss."

Did the offer propel Ole Miss to the top when it comes to Conner?

"They are really definitely up there," Conner said. "They're in the SEC and that says it all. It's the best conference. I want to see the campus and I might make a decision after that. When they offered, there was no pressure for me to commit. I want to see the campus before I commit."

"I'm still open," he continued. "I'm not going to get in a hurry. I want to see as many schools as I can before I make a decision."

In addition to the Wake Forest and Duke offers, Conner has an offer from Troy and is also getting a lot of interest from other schools including Boston College, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

As a junior, Vernon finished with more than 600 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

"I feel my biggest strength is my route running and my hands," he told Rivals.com. "I also think my ability to break things open after the catch is also a strong area of my game. I know this year I would like to be more consistent in turning the small catches into big gains after the catch, so that's probably the area I've focused the most on."

Vernon carries a 3.0 GPA and is awaiting results of a recently taken ACT.


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