Tyler Lockhart’s flip from Mississippi State to Ole Miss and back produced wild team, media, and social media results

College football recruiting often delivers some strange moments. One of the latest in a while came Wednesday around National Signing Day, the (earliest-ever) opening of the signing period for a class. There, four-star linebacker Tyler Lockhart initially made huge headlines by switching his commitment from Mississippi State to in-state rival Ole Miss. Here are how those headlines looked Wednesday night:

However, that came after Mississippi State posted a video of Lockhart flipping back to them, and posing in their locker room:

The best in state come to STATE!

4-star linebacker @_TylerL_12 is a DAWG!#HailState pic.twitter.com/ThbtHmopJn

— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) December 5, 2024

And that news was given further authenticity by reporters:

A recap:

Tyler Lockhart, a Miss St commit since September, announces a flip at signing ceremony today to in-state rival Ole Miss. Rebels even publicize the flip.

Hours later, Lockhart flips back to Miss St and signs with the Bulldogs.

Recruiting!! https://t.co/L1SljMYC3h

— John Talty (@JTalty) December 5, 2024

Summing up a crazy day of recruiting in Mississippi.

Tyler Lockhart announces he’s flipping to Ole Miss from Mississippi State at ceremony

Rebels put out the graphic at 6:47 pm

He then flips back to Miss State, with Bulldogs releasing graphic at 10:11 pm

Happy NSD! pic.twitter.com/pAhbwKJxSc

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) December 5, 2024

But that makes those initially-definitive reports on Lockhart’s Ole Miss signing seem outdated pretty quickly. Here’s one example, from On3’s Zach Berry (the “Merry Flipmas” headline above):

Winona (Miss.) linebacker Tyler Lockhart announced Wednesday he was flipping his commitment from Mississippi State to Ole Miss.

The 6-foot-2, 205 pound Lockhart is ranked as the nation’s 160th overall recruit in the 2025 class, per On3’s Industry Ranking. He is the No. 17 linebacker and Mississippi’s 5th-ranked recruit.

…He was a 2024 Clarion-Ledger Dandy Dozen selection and will represent the state of Mississippi in the MS/AL All-Star Game. The Bulldogs did a nice job of flipping him away from Auburn. But, the combination of on-the-field struggles in Starkville, linebacker success in Oxford and Pete Golding was too much to turn down for Lockhart.

The four-star prospect got to see All-SEC players TJ Dottery, Pooh Paul and Suntarine Perkins in 2024. It appears it resonated and helped the Rebels add another four-star to its 2025 class.

None of that was wrong at the time, and it’s pretty similar to the other reports from that time. And it made sense to write that, especially with the Rebels announcing Lockhart’s flip themselves (in a tweet and website post they later deleted), and with Lockhart announcing he’d join them in a ceremony:

WATCH:

4-star LB Tyler Lockhart, from Winona, MS (High), signs with Ole Miss.

He was previously committed to Mississippi State. #OleMiss | ⁦@LoganMediaNet⁩ pic.twitter.com/H7yQIOOTXn

— Brad Logan (@BradLoganCOTE) December 4, 2024

But this went from a commitment to Mississippi State to an announcement for Ole Miss to a flip back to Mississippi State quite fast. And that wound up being awkward for everyone from school athletic departments to reporters to fans commenting on this on social media platforms, producing the recruiting equivalent of a “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline.

At least these headlines were right initially, unlike that infamous Chicago Tribune one. And at least internet headlines can be changed. But this still wound up being unfortunate for many media. It’s unclear exactly what happened here, but it certainly created a wild media scenario.

[John Talty on X, image of Ole Miss’ website via Chase Parham on X]