Mississippi coach Ed Orgeron may have locked up his starting quarterback for 2008 with the signing of former Texas gunslinger Jevan Snead.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Snead visited Ole Miss’ campus last weekend. He chose the Rebels over Houston and TCU after leaving Texas because a lack of playing time.

“It’s going to be a great offense to get me ready for my dream, which is to go to the NFL,” Snead told The Clarion-Ledger on Monday. “But right now I’m ready to get in there and make a big impact when I play and help the team out.”

At Texas’ Stephenville High, Snead was rated as the nation’s sixth-best quarterback by recruiting service Scout.com for the 2006 class. Snead, a four-star recruit, was part of recruiting service Rivals.com’s top 100 national prospects.

His high school coach, Chad Morris, knew Snead was serious about Ole Miss when Snead called him several times Friday, insisting Morris hop on a plane Saturday and join him in Oxford to evaluate the campus.

“He told me, ’I can’t drop any more hints than that. I want you up here,”’ Morris said. “When he called me to come up, it wasn’t for me to get a vacation. It was for me to come up there and look and to get the same feel and the same vibe he had.”

Morris said Ole Miss is getting a tough, talented quarterback who left Texas looking for playing time after losing the starting job to redshirt freshman Colt McCoy.

Snead played in eight games this fall. He completed 26 of 49 passes, for 371 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.

Snead will not be eligible for the 2007 season because of NCAA rules, but he will have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

Current starter Brent Schaeffer and backup Seth Adams will be seniors next season, leaving freshmen Cliff Davis and Michael Herrick as other candidates for the job in 2008.

“That was a huge factor,” Snead said. “I didn’t want to walk into another situation where I would try to have to take the spot from somebody. (Schaeffer will) be playing next year and after that, it will just be an open competition. So that’s a big deal.”