Ole Miss has reached the pinnacle of college baseball, the College World Series.
For fans, it’s a fun vacation-like trip. For the Rebels, it’s a business trip. But the real work starts Friday. The “fun” work was done Thursday.
Media Day ✅#Olemaha pic.twitter.com/KJSGQc3ZiA
— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) June 11, 2026
Ole Miss players and coaches participated in the CWS Media Day in Omaha, Nebraska, taking part in photo shoots, video shoots and various interviews that fans will see throughout the tournament.
There was also a traditional press conference that featured head coach Mike Bianco, first baseman Will Furinss and pitchers Hunter Elliott and Taylor Rabe. Here’s everything they said at that press conference.
Will Furniss (1B), Hunter Elliott (LHP) and Taylor Rabe (RHP)
Furniss on dad’s experience in Omaha helping him…
I got to see him for a little bit after we won in Auburn, but he got here yesterday. I’m about to go eat lunch with him now and just have him walk me through what it feels like to be here and how to handle the excitement with the nerves and everything. He’s done everything for me to get me here. He’s the reason I even got to come to Ole Miss. I owe everything to him.
Elliott on emotions returning to Omaha…
I’ve told a couple people that I feel like you forget a little bit about it. It’s been a while. I’ve been through some ups and downs since then. It feels like ages ago almost that we were here. You forget a little bit. It was just good. It was a lot of excitement to be back. I really love this group of guys. I’m really happy for everybody that’s getting to experience it. It brought back a lot of good memories.
Rabe on his rise up to the starting rotation this season…
It’s been fun. Coming into the year, I knew I was going to be able to do everything that we wanted to do in the offseason, preseason and fall to get ready for the season. I knew I was going to get an opportunity to have a big impact, and I was glad I was able to do that and help us win.
Elliott on 5 SEC teams in Omaha and being the only SEC team on the left side of the CWS bracket…
I think that’s why there are so many teams here. The league and the schedule you have is just so brutal and so tough. The road environments you go to, they’re hard. There are no off weeks. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing in the league, one through 16, they’ll walk into your stadium and beat you. That’s why there are so many teams here, because it prepares you for the postseason. I’m not going to say I’m glad to be on the other side of it. North Carolina, Troy and West Virginia are incredible ball clubs that have had incredible seasons, so I’m not going to say that.
Elliott on imparting Omaha wisdom…
No real getting the guys together and saying, “Hey, I’ve been here, so this is what you need to do.” That’s not really what I’ve done. They’ve asked some questions, and it’s more just that having success here is about doing what we did in Lincoln, doing what we did in Auburn and winning the big parts of the game. Just doing the same thing. I think that’s why maybe sometimes people come here and aren’t the same, because they try to play a little different. It’s a bigger stage or whatever. But it’s doing what we’ve done all year. That’s why we’re here. We’re good enough to have success here.
Rabe on Elliott’s experience, leadership helping him…
When I first came here as a freshman and met Hunter, I kind of looked to him for the answers on how to get to Omaha. I don’t necessarily think you learn that by coming here, but one thing I’ve learned from him is that a trait of really good teams is that you don’t try to change everything up. Whether you get swept or sweep someone, you don’t do anything very different. You stick with your process and continue to improve the things you need to improve and be the same guys every day. That’s something Hunter has taught me and something I look for in teams. When we had some struggles this year, I just tried to keep the morale up. We didn’t need to panic. We were still a really good team. Especially in our league, people get beat every week. That’s not a reason to start to panic.
Furniss on Rebels’ recent timely hitting success…
I think hitters elevate their game in the postseason. Not necessarily trying to, but knowing that forgetting and moving past bad at-bats is huge for a lot of hitters. It’s really hard for people to do that. In the postseason, you kind of have to do that because every at-bat could be the one that breaks the offense through and helps you win the game. It’s really just a lot of people battling every pitch. We’ve really wanted to get it done for our teammates. We’ve gotten some runs in at the right times. I think we have a lot of runs scored with two outs and runners in scoring position, where it just seems like we’re always finding the big hit. That’s really big, especially for the postseason and the way these guys are throwing it. You don’t really have to score too much to win, even though we want to score 20 runs every game and not make it a sweat. But while we’re waiting to do that, we’re just going to try to win every pitch and get runners in when they get into scoring position.
Elliott on similarities between 2022 and 2026 Rebels…
It’s more similarities off the field. Obviously, on the field, we’ve got great pitchers, great hitters and things like that. But this group has stuck together. This group is a little older. We have a lot of experience, good and bad. The main thing is this group really loves to be together. We love hanging out. It’s kind of been a thing this postseason, but it’s real. We like the bus rides because we get to spend time with our teammates. We don’t want to play the last game together. That’s a trait that I think is very similar.
Elliott on Rabe’s growth this season…
The obvious stuff is that he’s made huge strides on the field. He’s developed into one of the elite stuff arms in the country. But outside of that, I think his competitiveness has elevated. The thing I’m most impressed with is that he seems to really find a way to own the big moment now. It seems like he’s starting to understand that jams are just part of it. You’re going to get yourself into jams, but he’s learning how to make the big pitch. That’s awesome. That’s something that takes some guys a long time, but he’s made some big pitches this year.
Elliott on difference in motivation between home and road games…
I don’t know about motivating ourselves. I think we’re a very good road baseball team. The road experience we’ve gained this year, playing in Austin, Fayetteville, Gainesville and other places in the SEC, is what prepared us. This team really enjoys quieting road crowds. This team enjoys the big moment and the rise of opposing fans, and then we really like quieting them. I’m not sure it’s going to be like that here because Ole Miss fans travel pretty well to Omaha. But there’s no difference. We enjoy playing on the road, but we love playing in front of our home fans, too.
Behind the Scenes of Media Day 📸#Olemaha pic.twitter.com/kXf4xmKmf4
— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) June 11, 2026
Mike Bianco, Head Coach
Opening Statement…
Well, I think like everybody that gets to this point, you’re excited to be here. It’s obviously a long journey for every program to make it to Omaha, the pinnacle of college baseball. But then once you get here, with the travel and all the media obligations they just went through, I know they’re excited and ready to play baseball.
On Rebels stepping up in big moments this season…
I don’t know if there’s a secret sauce to that, and I certainly don’t want to take credit away from them. One of the things that’s been echoed a lot recently is culture, chemistry, whatever phrase you want to use. When you have teams that are close-knit, teams that play for one another and teams that have great leadership, they seem to be better in the bigger moments. I think it has more to do with that.
The other thing is maybe a mantra, if you will. Midway through the season, one of the pregame talks was about handling hard. Not just in baseball or sports, but in life in general. There are hard times. There are difficult roads. Most people have the mindset of, “I need to get through this hard time so it’ll be easier.” That really doesn’t happen. The hard times don’t stop in sports or in life. You just learn to handle hard better. We kind of took that on midway through the season. People talked about our schedule and our SEC schedule, and we talked about handling hard well.
It was fitting that, at the end, when we didn’t finish well enough to host, we had to go on the road. Not only did we go to a place like Nebraska with a great crowd, but then we had to play a really good opponent in Arizona State. Our guys handled it. The reward was to go to Auburn and play in front of two other record-breaking crowds against one of the best teams in the country. This team has handled hard well.
On Friday’s starter vs. North Carolina…
We’re going to throw Taylor Rabe.
On Rebels being “old” leading to success…
We’re believers, and I think most coaches would admit that not just in college baseball, but certainly in our league, old wins. Older teams seem to have success. They’re more mature, going back to the earlier question about handling tough moments. You look up and you have veterans like Will and Hunter. Taylor, even though eligibility-wise he’s a sophomore, has been here for three years. When you’re old, you’ve been through the adversity. You’ve been punched in the mouth, and hopefully you’ve been able to get back up, continue to fight and have success. When we came back from the 2022 team, we lost a lot of old players, and it was tough to get that back. But certainly this team is older and much better for it.
On decision to start Rabe first on the mound…
I think what Hunter said is right. There’s been a lot written about him over the last three weeks, and it’s well-deserved. He’s a kid who just continues to get better, it seems, week in and week out. He was really good at the beginning of the season. Whatever role we put him in, he seemed to flourish, whether it was as a bullpen piece, closer or, all of a sudden, a weekend starter. If you’ve watched him, and what Hunter said, the great ones learn how to make pitches and get off the field. He’s learned that. Especially over the last few weeks, there have been times in those games where that’s where the game is likely to be won or lost. He’s been able to make those pitches, and that’s what the great ones do.
On Dom Decker’s experience from 2025 CWS helping Ole Miss…
I think both those guys. I don’t think it’s a team meeting in the locker room where they pull them together and say, “Here’s the roadmap to navigate through Omaha.” But I would imagine, as a player, you’re looking at Dom and you’re looking at Hunter. That’s what leadership is a lot of times, just how they respond in those moments and what they’re doing. A lot has been said about Hunter, and obviously it should be. He’s a national champion. He’s the last remaining guy off that team. But Dom was here last year. Both guys have shown tremendous leadership, not just in the last week or so, but throughout the season.
On SEC sending five teams to Omaha…
First, it probably sounds pompous, but I’m not surprised. We were here in 2022. There were four teams, and two of the other four that weren’t SEC teams were Texas and Oklahoma. In our league, as Hunter said, nothing prepares you more for the postseason than the Southeastern Conference. Great teams play in great environments. We say it all the time: If you don’t play well in our league, you lose. It’s as simple as that. You have to play well. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing. If you don’t play well, you lose in our league. That’s the two-edged sword. It’s very unforgiving through the 30 games, but what those 30 games do for you is they weather you. They thicken your skin and prepare you for the postseason.
On North Carolina…
As far as North Carolina, the question to Hunter earlier was, are you happy you’re on the side that doesn’t have all the SEC teams? A lot of times as coaches, we joke that we can’t wait to play somebody outside of our league. But playing a team that’s 72-2 in North Carolina — I don’t know if that’s a great reward. Obviously, sarcasm there. They’re good. They’ve had a tremendous year. I think they lost their first weekend in conference play and then ran through another really good conference nine weeks in a row. There is no weakness. They pitch at a high level. They hit at a high level. They’re tough to strike out. They steal bases. They do everything well. They’re experienced as well.
On Brayden Randle playing in the outfield…
It’s certainly an option. I don’t know if I’m ready to release a starting lineup. But Brayden didn’t just do that in the Super Regional. He had been taking fly balls for a couple of weeks out there, really since we left Hoover. In the SEC Tournament, we only played one game there, but he probably had three or four really good at-bats, better than anybody on the team. A lot of times when you get to the bottom of the lineup, you’re looking for that one guy to give you a little spark. An infielder moving to the outfield, a shortstop who’s athletic and can run, you feel comfortable that he can play it defensively. It adds another piece to your offense.
To continue on with the timely hitting, that’s one of the things that has been different for this offense, at least the last three weeks, but really the second half of the season. When we were struggling offensively, it was more the bottom half of the lineup. That seems obvious, but we were really weak. Then when Federico got hot when we got into conference play, and then you add in Paino, and Foley has swung the bat terrific the last month. Then when you add in Randle, a big home run by Reuter — talking about timely hits — in Game 1 of the Super Regional, a big home run to center field. The bottom of the lineup has been a lot more productive over the last month of the season.
On coaching Furniss in Omaha almost three decades of coaching Furniss’ dad, Eddie, in Omaha…
Yeah, really cool. As his son just said, the numbers speak for themselves. A legend at LSU, a national champion, a couple-time national champion, number retired, College Baseball Hall of Famer, all the accolades — and not just at LSU, but in the Southeastern Conference. That says a lot. I had a great opportunity of coaching him a couple years at LSU, so we had a prior relationship before Will got here. More specifically to your question, it’s really neat for parents at this time to watch their son have success at the highest level of amateur baseball. It’s really cool for Eddie, and Crystal, Will’s mom, to see that and watch their son realize those dreams that Eddie did. That picture was taken right after the press conference at the Super Regional. I didn’t realize it, but Eddie gave me a hug and said, “We went to Omaha in ’96, and this is 30 years later exactly that my son is getting to go.” We took that picture, and he sent it to me. I sent it to Coach Bertman. It was just a cool moment. Parents have those moments, but when you’re a guy like Eddie Furniss, it’s really neat for somebody to step away from being the star and all the accolades I’ve already mentioned and sit back and just be a proud dad. I think that’s really neat.
On similarities between this and the 2022 Ole Miss team…
Different in a way where that team was the proverbial last team in. This team knew it was going to the postseason all along. That team in 2022 played really well at the very beginning of the season. We were ranked No. 1 to start conference play for a couple of weeks. Then, for about four to six weeks in a row, we lost and fell to 7-14, and the rest of the story happened. This team never got to that elite level during the season. We played well, but it was a hard road. The schedule was just brutal through the 10 weeks. You hear all the time that it was the most difficult. I’ll let you guys decide that, but certainly it was a tough road through those 10 weeks of conference play. They handled it.
The similarities are the leadership, the oldness that we talked about, the veteran leadership, how much they cared about one another and how much fun they have with one another. That means so much. That’s the stuff behind the curtain that you guys don’t get to see most of the time. We don’t know that, right? You don’t know how close-knit a group is going to be. You don’t know the leadership until you get into the season and have the adversity and those types of things. I think that’s the biggest similarity. That was a neat team to be around, how much they cared for one another and how much they liked being with one another. Then you had guys like Elko, Bench and Graham who were great leaders on that team. Here, you look at Utermark, who’s like Elko 2.0. Then you have a veteran presence in Elliott and Furniss, a guy who’s been here for four years. Those are the similarities. They were great teams with great leadership.
On Star Wars’ stormtrooper helmet becoming the home run celebration…
I’ll connect the dots a little bit. I’m probably not the best one to answer it. We’re in Gainesville. I don’t know which day, but I’m going to guess it was day two. It was Easter weekend, so it was probably Friday. I went into one of the meeting rooms and there was a stormtrooper helmet on one of the tables. I like Star Wars, but I only saw the first one and a little bit of the second one. That’s a whole other story. My family rags me all the time. But I knew exactly what the helmet was. I said, “Why is that here?” And somebody said something like, “Hey, we’re thinking about making that…” I think they were testing me, like, would I allow it? We were struggling at the time, especially offensively, and maybe it could be our home run celebration. Put the helmet on. I think I surprised them by saying, “Sure, heck yeah, that’s neat.” When I said that and knew what was going to happen, the first thing I did was go to John Corrella, our strength coach, and say, “You need to make sure you’re in control of that helmet because of the NCAA rules. You don’t want that coming out of the dugout. Next thing you know, Judd Utermark gets kicked out of the game or something like that.” Corrella, our strength coach, is the one in charge of it. He’s the only one who touches it, the one who hands it to the guy and makes sure it stays in the dugout. I think Judd’s home run in Game 3 on Saturday night to tie it up, where we eventually won that game and beat Florida two out of three in Gainesville, was the first one where somebody put the stormtrooper helmet on.
