Walker Howard feels he has grown a lot during first spring at Ole Miss

Ole Miss quarterback Walker Howard is the young buck among the Rebels scholarship quarterbacks. With incumbent starter Jaxson Dart and former four-year Oklahoma State starting quarterback Spencer Sanders on the roster, Howard has plenty of opportunities to learn.

He believes he has taken advantage of that during the spring, using Dart and Sanders as mentors to help him learn and grow as a quarterback.

“Both those two older quarterbacks, they’ve done a great job helping me,” Howard said after the Grove Bowl. We got all the analysts coaching there. We got a bunch of guys helping me out every single day. I work with Coach Gilbert up there after every day of film and we get better every single day. Those two guys are pushing me every day.”

Howard had a great performance during the spring game. He played for both team, rotating in on the Red Team with Dart and the Blue Team with Sanders.

Dart finished 18 of 37 throwing the football for 302 passing yards and one touchdown. Sanders threw 27 passes, completing 19 of them for 265 yards and three touchdowns. He also added another 72 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown.

Howard was extremely efficient. He was 11-for-13 for 184 yards and three passing touchdowns in addition to a rushing touchdown.

“I think both sides of offense, the blue and red teams, I think everyone did a great job,” Howard said after the spring game. “The quarterbacks did a great job, and the offensive line killed it today. I thought our running backs made plays, the receivers, obviously, were out there making plays all day today. It was a good day overall.”

Ole Miss quarterback situation still undecided

Jaxson Dart, Spencer Sanders and Walker Howard all came out of the Ole Miss spring game looking good, which is good for the team but also complicates the potential answer of who will earn the starting quarterback job.

On3’s Jesse Simonton said that this competition is right now a major question mark not because of the lack of good options like other teams but because there are three good candidates.

“Dart entered Saturday’s spring game reportedly “clinging” to his starting job, and I have a hunch that grip is a tad looser entering the summer — and this is after a performance where Dart was darn good in the spring game,” Simonton wrote.

“It’s just that Spencer Sanders, the former Oklahoma State quarterback with three years of experience, was even better, while Walker Howard, thought to be the future at the position, had more touchdowns (four) than incompletions (two).”