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Lane Kiffin gives latest on quarterback competition between Jaxson Dart, Luke Altmyer

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz•08/19/22•

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Coming off a historic 10-win regular season, the Ole Miss Rebels are looking to continue their march toward the top of the SEC West in 2022.(Jonathan Bachman via Getty Images.)

The Ole Miss quarterback competition between Jaxson Dart and Luke Altmyer is still ongoing as training camp enters the final stages. Lane Kiffin provided an update on Friday, and it sounds like things are still status quo.

Dart and Altmyer are battling to replace Matt Corral, who became a third-round pick of the Carolina Panthers in the 2022 NFL Draft. Kiffin didn’t sound any closer to naming a starter in his press conference, and didn’t provide a timeline for a decision.

“I’m going to sound dumb and say I don’t know that, but I mean, I don’t know,” Kiffin told reporters. “Some days, it’s very close. Some days, you think one, some days, you can think the other. It’ll happen when it happens.”

One of the highest-profile transfers to hit the transfer portal, Dart arrived in Oxford from USC after becoming the No. 10 portal prospect, according to the 2021 On3 Transfer Portal Rankings. He threw 1,353 yards and nine touchdowns as a true freshman last year before entering the portal.

Altmyer, meanwhile, played in four games as Corral’s backup and threw for 192 yards and a touchdown last season.

Lane Kiffin criticizes Jaxson Dart, Luke Altmyer following scrimmage

In a post-scrimmage press conference earlier this week, Kiffin gave a blunt assessment of Dart and Altmyer’s performances as they compete to replace Corral as the Rebels’ starting quarterback.

“I thought the first two guys [Dart and Altmyer] didn’t play great and took too many sacks — even though we’re not hitting them, that would’ve been sacks,” Kiffin told reporters.

Still, he thought one quarterback had a good day. Kinkead Dent put together a solid performance, according to Kiffin, and the Rebels headman admitted his play-calling might have had something to do with that.

“We play a little game in the quarterback room predicting the MVPs for the day and guess them,” Kiffin said. “I would like to go on record that I picked Kinkade to be MVP today. That may have had something to do with the play-calling down there to get him some extra touchdown passes to win that bet. But he did a good job. Made a lot of plays.”