On3 Roundtable: How Ole Miss will evolve in Lane Kiffin's fourth year

It is Year 4 of the Lane Kiffin era at Ole Miss. The Rebels have had success over the first three years, and are looking to build upon that in 2023.

OMSpirit’s Ben Garrett hopped on with On3’s J.D. PicKell on On3 Roundtable to discuss what he expects to see change or evolve this year with Kiffin’s program.

“First of all, obviously, the first thing you point to is defensively the complete change in identity under Pete Golding,” Garrett said. “But this is their third defensive coordinator in three years. They’re used to having that kind of change. With Pete, he’s far and away more accomplished than the guys that came before him and he’s added a bunch of transfers…But I think at the at the end of it all, for Ole Miss this year, despite all the turnover everywhere else, it comes back to Jaxson Dart. If he is the quarterback, which we all say he is now, can you take that Year 2 step that Matt Corral did the year they won 10 games? Can he really thrust himself into the top three rounds of the NFL Draft?”

The defense allowed 25.5 points per game last season, good for 57th in the country. When the team won 10 games in 2021, the defense allowed 24.1 points per game.

“They have talent across the board defensively,” Garrett said. “Pete Golding’s never had less than a top-30 defense anywhere he’s been. Now, I don’t think he’s gonna have a top-30 defense here. I don’t think that’s what gonna happen in 2023. But top 50 — can Ole Miss win nine games with that? Absolutely they can. The offensive talent is there.”

In Garrett’s mind, however, it all comes back to Jaxson Dart.

The former five-star recruit has the talent to be hands-down one of the best quarterbacks in the conference. If that ends up being the case, the team could go on a big run this year. If that’s not the case, the potential outcomes are a lot more varied — the ceiling likely not as high.

“The quarterback, the trigger man, the No. 1 question mark we thought has been pretty well settled for a little while now,” Garrett said. “Can Jaxson Dart — even though the quarterback battle wasn’t interesting — can you take the Matt Corral step? Because if you could take the Matt Corral step, well now you’re talking about maybe Ole Miss could knock off Alabama. Now they are probably not gonna get Georgia in Athens but LSU looks much better than them on paper right now. But if Jaxson Dart’s playing at that level, the Matt Corral level, then they could give ’em a hell of a game. They give them a hell of a game last year. They had the ball in their hands with an opportunity to go up two touchdowns and then (it) all fell apart. So I think Jaxson Dart is the number one story.”