Ole Miss defensive tackle JJ Pegues is being recognized for his work off the field ahead of the 2024 college football season.
Pegues, an Oxford native, has been named a nominee for the 2024 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team for the second consecutive year. This year, the award begins a partnership with the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy to mark college football’s premier honors for community service.
Established in 1992, the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team recognizes college football athletes for their unwavering commitment to community service and their “good works” off the field. This year’s 178 nominees, including Pegues, champion causes including mental health awareness, youth mentorship, hunger relief, domestic abuse prevention, and many more. In addition to being actively involved with a charitable organization or service group, each player must also maintain a strong academic standing.
The Wuerffel Trophy, which Pegues was also a watch list member for in 2023, is presented annually to the FBS player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership achievement on and off the field. The award is named after Danny Wuerffel, Florida’s 1996 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who turned his success on the football field into a lifetime of service.
Beginning this year, only FBS players elected to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team are eligible for the honor, which replaces the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team captain.
On the field, Pegues has become 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.
Pegues, formerly a tight end at the high school ranks, further cemented his role as one of college football’s more versatile linemen, moving the chains on a crucial 4th and short in Ole Miss’s Peach Bowl victory over Penn State. Additionally, in 2022, he hauled in a one-yard touchdown reception in the Egg Bowl.
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.
Mississippi State kicker Nick Barr-Mira is also a nominee for the award. No other players from Mississippi universities cracked the list. The full group of Allstate AFCA Good Works Team nominees can be found here.
