Ole Miss defensive tackle JJ Pegues has been named a semifinalist for the 2024 Allstate Wuerffel Trophy.
The announcement came on Tuesday with Pegues, a member of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, being featured among 11 football players who best combine exemplary community service with leadership achievement on and off the field. This year, the Good Works Team began a partnership with the Wuerffel Trophy to mark college football’s premier honors for community service.
Pegues, the 2024 Chucky Mullins Courage Award winner, has started all three games on the defensive line this season for the Rebels, where he is tied for second on the team with three tackles for loss. Among all interior defensive linemen in the FBS, Pegues ranks as the No. 9 pass rusher per Pro Football Focus with an 83.3 grade. He also owns two rushes for 12 yards and one touchdown as a special package member of the Rebel offense — where he is most commonly used by Lane Kiffin in fourth-and-short situations.
On the field, Pegues is a mainstay of the Ole Miss defense, playing in all 13 games for the Rebels in 2023 while starting 12. He ended the 2023 campaign with a career-high 42 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and four pass breakups while also tacking two quarterback hurries to the stat sheet. He continues to make waves this season as an invaluable member of one of the most ferocious defenses in college football.
As for his community service work, Pegues is heavily active within the Oxford-Lafayette County community, continuously partaking in numerous service events. Pegues, a member of the SEC Leadership Council, the SEC Community Service Team, and the Ole Miss Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, held his own community-wide school supply giveaway last fall, which helped distribute school supplies for elementary students.
“[Pegues] understands the platform that he has,” Ole Miss defensive line coach Randall Joyner said in an episode of The Season. “One thing that I preach to the guys all the time is that your reality is somebody else’s dream. Part of our job is to impact and to provide hope for young individuals — and he does that.”
Other community events Pegues has been part of include
- Annual Adopt-a-Basket program run by the Ole Miss athletics department — Donating more than 100 Thanksgiving baskets to local families.
- Annual Feed the Sip program through the Stronger Together MS initiative — Collecting and donating more than 12,000 non-perishable food items to elementary students within Tunica and Quitman counties.
- Ole Miss’ ongoing Reading with the Rebels program — Featuring student-athletes visiting local elementary schools to read to students to increase support for reading and literacy throughout the state of Mississippi.
- Local Boys and Girls Club after-school programs — Being an active participant in various activities and bringing smiles to the faces of the youth present.
- Local Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Back to School event — Helping prepare foster students for the start of the school year.
- CASA’s Adopt-a-Child program — Assisting children during the holiday season.
- CASA’s 5K Superhero Run fundraiser — Raising money to assist children who have been abused or neglected.
- The Tim Tebow Foundation’s A Night to Shine event —A community-wide prom for individuals with disabilities.
- Former Rebel KD Hill’s Back to School Bash — A fun event for local children ahead of the school year.
- Assisting in the inaugural AJ Brown Foundation event hosted by the former Rebel and current NFL great.
- Ole Miss’ water collection drive to assist residents of Jackson, Mississippi during the city’s water crisis.
Pegues also joined fellow Rebel teammates in cleanup and donation efforts to help Mississippi communities affected by the March 2023 tornadoes that ravaged much of the state.
The Wuerffel Trophy finalists and ultimate recipient will be selected by a national voting committee, including a fan vote component. The 2024 recipient, who will also be recognized as the Good Works Team captain, will be announced live on ESPN during the Home Depot College Football Awards show on December 12.
Named after Danny Wuerffel, Florida’s 1996 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who turned his success on the football field into a lifetime of service, the Wuerffel Trophy has been presented since 2005.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first Wuerffel Trophy, awarded to Rudy Niswanger of LSU, followed by eighteen recipients. Georgia’s Ladd McConkey was most recently honored with the award and named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team in 2023. Pegues will look to be the next.
