OXFORD – It took Jerrell Powe two years to get onto the Ole Miss campus. It’s taken him less than two weeks to break into the starting lineup.

The defensive tackle from Wayne County, whose recruiting saga has played out over the last two years, has impressed the Ole Miss coaching staff enough in his short time in Oxford to win a job as a starting defensive tackle.

&#8220Jerrell Powe has come in and been everything we expected him to be,” Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron said at the school’s media day on Monday. &#8220He’s come in in excellent shape and is showing he can be a force in the middle.”

Powe’s trip to Oxford has been a long and winding one.

He originally signed with Ole Miss in 2005, but failed to meet academic requirements. He went to Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia that fall, committed to Ole Miss again in February 2006 and later sued the university to admit him.

The NCAA again denied eligibility to Powe last fall, but he kept working and was finally admitted to Ole Miss on a provisional basis last week. He still needs final approval from the NCAA, which is expected to come by the end of this week.

&#8220We’ve done everything by the book. I said, tell me how you want it done, and done everything how they want it,” Powe said, adding that the drama off the field was fueling him to do better on it. &#8220It’s the only way it’ll go away, is to get better at what you do. It’ll fade away if you do that.”

Orgeron praised Powe’s persistence and held him up as a model for all learning disabled students. Powe tried to downplay that praise, however.

&#8220I ain’t never looked at how big a story it would be. I would tell them not to give up on their dream,” Powe said. &#8220I was like any other student. Just trying to get into school.”

Powe is hardly like any other student, though. He’s a 6-foot-2, 330-pound monster who sits square in the middle of Ole Miss’ line and is a linchpin of their revamped defense.

&#8220You look at Jerrell Powe, a man his size, with that first step and the way he gets off the ball, I haven’t seen anything like that at all,” defensive coordinator John Thompson said.

While Powe believes he’s cleared the last hurdles in his path to eligibility, there’s still a chance the NCAA will deny it. It’s the same situation another Ole Miss starter, linebacker Chris Strong, is in.

Strong, a highly touted recruit from South Panola, was provisionally admitted to school the same day as Powe. And, like Powe, Strong has made quite a splash on the field while he waits for a final verdict. After one day of practice, Orgeron said he had seen enough to give him the starting middle linebacker job.

Orgeron added that he wasn’t concerned about giving playing time to two players who may have to pack up their gear at the end of the week.

&#8220We’re giving them work, but other guys are getting reps too. We’re moving forward. We’re thinking positive,” Orgeron said. &#8220Other guys have had their chance. They had the red jerseys and got beat down.”