Jaxson Dart identifies area he wants to improve this season: 'I want to be like an OC'

Jaxson Dart heads into year three as the Ole Miss starting quarterback, and this time around, he’s hoping to become more coach-like on the football field.

Dart is certainly capable of running the offense and eclipsed 3,300 passing yards in 2023 as one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC. But he still sees plenty of room for improvement, like being able to completely call the shots on offense on his own, if need be. He explained at spring practice those goals for himself this season.

“There’s a lot of things I want to improve on. I want to be like an OC out there,” said Dart. “I want Coach (Charlie) Weis to be able to trust me to call my own plays if I have to.”

Beyond simply executing the called play, Jaxson Dart says he wants to learn to see and understand the game and play calls the way Weis does as the offensive coordinator.

“The big thing for me and him is I want to understand, every time he calls a play, what he’s looking at and what he’s looking to attack,” added Dart. “There’s a lot of things to improve on and I’m really excited to continue to improve myself day in and day out.”

Sounds like Ole Miss’ QB1 is focusing on the mental aspect of the position as springs rolls along ahead of his senior season.

Dart uses spring break to bond with receivers

The Rebels took off a week for Spring Break last month, but for Jaxson Dart, it was an opportunity to get some more work in with his receivers with Southern California serving as the back drop.

Two of Dart’s top targets, Tre Harris and Jordan Watkins, made the trip out West with him and the trio saw it as an opportunity to strengthen their bond on the field and off.

For Dart it was also an opportunity to test out his ankle after some offseason cleanup on it.

“It wasn’t even as much of me inviting them. It was guys coming up to me going, ‘Hey, what are you doing during Spring Break? I want to get some work in,’” Dart said.

“Tre and J-Wat came out and I thought it was just great, especially me coming off the injury, being able to throw again and try to get as much reps as I can with them just because I’m not doing as much on the field at practice right now. So, it was great to have those guys out there with me.”

Shortly after the Peach Bowl victory Dart had a procedure done to get back to 100 percent. That was the first time he threw in bulk before the spring practices really got going.