Jaxson Dart shares confidence in Ole Miss' offense

Jaxson Dart and the Ole Miss offense were cooking in last Saturday’s Grove Bowl spring game. Both teams lit up the scoreboard with Dart’s team coming away with a 53-52 win.

After the game, Dart was asked if he saw the improvement he was hoping to see from the offense in the spring heading into the game.

“Absolutely,” Dart said in his press conference. “I think sometimes it’s hard going through spring when you get into injuries and stuff like that. We have some key pieces that couldn’t play today because they were hurt. But I feel like a lot of guys stepped up and played big roles this spring and have had a lot of guys get better in just a short time. So it’s fun to see them progress and watch our offense flourish at times. It’s really exciting.”

And the offense really flourish during the game, no matter which one of the Rebels’ three scholarship quarterbacks was under center. Dart, who quarterbacked the Red Team finished going 18-for-37 for 302 passing yards and one touchdown. Blue team quarterback Spencer Sanders completed 19 of 27 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns while adding another 72 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Walker Howard, who played for both teams, was 11-for-13 for 184 yards and three passing touchdowns in addition to a rushing touchdown.

The quarterback competition in Oxford, Miss., is set to be one of the most interesting of the summer. Dart may have the been the No. 1 guy and the incumbent from the 2022 season heading into the game but the race is not over yet.

Sanders has plenty of experience as a starting quarterback at Oklahoma State, where he was a All-Big 12 first team quarterback in 2021. Howard, although younger than the other two, was a highly-regarded prospect out of high school.

Head coach Lane Kiffin said after the spring game that it was really good to see all three players make plays and smart decisions.

“I thought all three guys made plays, made out of rhythm competitive plays,” Lane Kiffin said. “I thought earlier there were some really good in-rhythm timing plays, especially some passes to the backs. So, and then they made some as they went along. You could see the heat, the tempo, wear down the defense and guys made a lot of plays when the defensive rush was tired.”