Lane Kiffin points out good, bad from Jaxson Dart debut

Jaxson Dart had a solid debut for Ole Miss last week against Troy, throwing for 154 yards and a touchdown. However, it wasn’t all good, and Lane Kiffin talked about the good and the bad from his first game with the Rebels.

Dart, who also completed 18 of 27 passes in the game, made some late mistakes. His lone interception came in the third quarter, and he stayed in for one more drive after that. Kiffin said the interception, in particular, showed some things Dart needs to work on, but added the former USC quarterback looked solid until that point.

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“I thought he was doing really well until the last two series,” Kiffin said. “An interception, take three hitches in the red zone. That is exactly what he knows has been his issue is not speeding things up and understanding and the timing of our passing game and not getting away with those throws. Those don’t work. Certainly don’t work in this conference coming up.

“But he was doing a really good job until then, and that’s what I’m talking about. We would’ve probably got the turnover, we would’ve probably ran it because they really weren’t stopping us running the ball, but wanted to work on that and these guys were playing soft and they needed to check the ball down, which he had done a good job earlier doing that. Then, his last play, the third down, easy conversion there, missing the receiver. Those are two series right there that could’ve resulted in two touchdowns. So, until then, he was doing a really good job.”

Lane Kiffin shares what Jaxson Dart needs to work on after Ole Miss debut

Kiffin also pointed to some other stats Dart and Ole Miss need to work on, specifically big plays. The longest completion of the game was 22 yards, and Kiffin said he wants the offense to be more explosive as the year goes on.

If that doesn’t happen, he said it’ll put some more stress on the run game.

“We had some coverages. We had some like the one to JJ where we’re audibling to a look and just barely missed it,” Kiffin said. “That’s kind of been the story of camp on the deep passing game. Just been there and been a little bit off some days, and it was, obviously, not an explosive passing day among play of whatever 18, 20 yards, whatever it was. … We’ve got to hit some of those, otherwise we’ve just got to run people out of it.”