Jaxson Dart gives his personal emotions of playing in Peach Bowl

Jaxson Dart is ready for the moment in the Peach Bowl as Ole Miss takes on Penn State Saturday December 30th. 

The Rebels quarterback dreamed of playing in a game like this coming up. Ole Miss can end the season with a statement win in a New Year’s Six atmosphere.

Simply put, it’ll springboard Ole Miss into next season regardless if Dart returns in 2024 or not.

“Yeah, you know, I’ve always wanted to play in a game like this,” Dart said. “I’ve always wanted to play in a really big bowl game. And it’s just the fruits of your labor of everything that you put in. You want to end things off the right way. And you know for the guys that are coming back it carries a lot of momentum for him. 

“It’s just a great opportunity for us as a team to see how far that we’ve come and to really finish this thing off the way that we want to and the way that we’ve worked this whole offseason in season four.”

This year, Dart had the best season of his career, throwing for 2,985 yards, 20 touchdowns, five interceptions, a 65.4% completion percentage, 375 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns.

As a member of the Class of 2021, Dart was a four-star recruit out of Draper (Utah) Corner Canyon, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 2 overall prospect in the state, the No. 7 quarterback in the class and the No. 42 overall prospect in the class.

If this is his Ole Miss swan song, it’d be quite the win to go out on before the NFL.

“Yeah as of right now I’m really just focused on the bowl game,” Dart said. “We’re going to take that decision as a family decision. There’s a time and place for that, but right now I’m just fully focused on the bowl game and winning this game.”

Dart also explained that Ole Miss felt the team deserved a bid to a major bowl game. So, getting the opportunity has the team excited.

“I think we were all just super ecstatic,” Dart said. “You come to work every single day from the offseason to throughout the year and you want the opportunity to play on the biggest stages. We definitely thought we deserved it with our wins and the opponents that we faced. We had to come to work every single day and had one of the toughest schedules in the country and had a great season.”