Lane Kiffin breaks down additions to quarterback room, competition going forward

Ole Miss is one of the SEC teams that had the luxury of a quality starting quarterback coming back in the form of Jaxson Dart. And yet coach Lane Kiffin took a pair of high-profile transfers at the position this offseason anyway, trying to create some competition at quarterback.

As Kiffin explains it, he’s not worried about upsetting anyone’s feelings.

“I said the other day in an article, we’re not here to please the individual player or their family,” Kiffin said during Ole Miss’ spring game. “We’re here to look at the big picture, which means bringing in people, even though they don’t want to. Even if they’re veteran players and it creates competition. And not just competition, injuries happen. You’ve got to play those guys.”

So joining Dart this spring were Oklahoma State transfer Spencer Sanders, a veteran starting quarterback, and LSU transfer Walker Howard, a former five-star prospect.

More than anything, though, Kiffin just needed to restock the position.

How everything shakes out as far as who starts and how the others handle that decision remains to be seen. But the No. 1 priority was shoring up the room.

“That position was very depleted. We basically at one point were really down to just Jaxson as far as the quarterback,” Kiffin said. “We ended up having two leave and replaced them with two really good players. So I’m excited that we did that. And this next window, we’ll do that at some other positions, too.”

Despite the addition of the two high-profile transfers, it doesn’t necessarily seem like a true quarterback competition has broken out just yet.

Sanders, who was very productive at Oklahoma State, was nursing a shoulder injury for most of the spring, really only getting the reins taken off on Saturday for the spring game. And he delivered, accounting for four touchdowns by the midway point of the fourth quarter.

“Spencer has been very limited because of injury, so I’d like to see him play a lot today,” Kiffin said. “Walker had, obviously, last year redshirted over there at LSU, hasn’t played very much. Great to see those guys play a lot today. Lot of chances in the passing game.”

There are more chances coming for Ole Miss to shore up its roster, too.

The spring window to enter the NCAA transfer portal to seek a free one-time transfer began on Saturday and will last for 15 days. Ole Miss will be scouring the entries.

Kiffin has already created a recipe for a quarterback competition. Now he wants to do it at other spots, too.

“You work really hard to improve your roster, as we know,” Kiffin said. “But I try to say with guys, if we could, each position coach, could take their room and dramatically improve their group then we’ve got a really good team overall. Quarterback’s a very good example of that.”