Jaxson Dart a "completely different sort of animal" than Kentucky faced in 2022

Kentucky has already faced Jaxson Dart once, back in 2022 when he was in just his fifth game with the Rebels after transferring from USC. Dart and Ole Miss beat the Cats that day due to huge turnovers on Kentucky’s side, but since then, Dart has skyrocketed to stardom, now a Heisman contender playing in the nation’s top offense.

To have a chance at upsetting No. 6 Ole Miss in Oxford tomorrow, Kentucky must find a way to slow Dart and the Rebels down. That’s a monumental task, even for a defense as good as the Cats’. Dart has the most passing yards (1,554) through four games of any SEC quarterback in the last 20 seasons and the highest passing grade (93.7) of all Power Four quarterbacks on Pro Football Focus. He has 12 touchdowns through the air this season and three on the ground. Ole Miss has yet to face a defense like Kentucky’s, but even if the Cats can get to Dart, his poise and ability to scramble set him apart from the rest.

“When he’s uncomfortable, you see a tremendous presence,” Mark Stoops said of Dart on Wednesday. “He obviously can run the ball, but he does a remarkable job of pulling it and running it and scrambling for positive yardage or buying time to throw it in the pocket.

“I think that’s a theme that you’re going to hear a lot week to week because I think it’s super important in today’s game. But Jaxson is doing it at a very high rate, obviously, completing 80% of his passes is pretty remarkable. So he’s making very good decisions, only a couple of turnovers with 12 TDs. And so he’s playing extremely well.”

Dart was decent in his first game against Kentucky, going 15-29 for 213 yards, but it was the Rebels’ running game that gashed the Cats that day (along with self-inflicted errors). Brad White said Dart has come leaps and bounds in two years, joking that his ball placement and ability to scramble have earned him a lot of friends in the Ole Miss locker room.

“I remember him being a talented young player back when we played him in ’22 but right now, he’s a completely different sort of animal in terms of, you can see the confidence with which he’s playing. He knows exactly where he wants to go with the ball. Does a great job pre-snap of understanding what he’s about to get. Understands, okay, when he wants to take that shot his deep, deep ball placement is high, high level.”

“He throws such an easy ball to catch. I know the receivers must love playing with him and for him. Again, when you have ball placement and touch, that’s a receiver’s best friend. And then you tag on his ability to run and be mobile, that’s an O-line’s best friend. I’m sure he’s got a lot of friends on that offense.”

Dart talks offense, Star Wars on SportsCenter

After Ole Miss’ high-flying start, Jaxson Dart is getting plenty of attention. On Thursday, he appeared on SportsCenter and talked plenty about Ole Miss’ offense, which has totaled 220 points through four games, a school record.

“If I had to put it into one word? Electric,” Dart said of the offense. “We have great playmakers; I’m really just out there playing point guard. They make my job look easy. I’ve got a great coaching staff around me, [who] put me in great positions to succeed each and every play.”

You may remember from two years ago that Dart is a big Star Wars fan and pays tribute to Anakin Skywalker with a streak of eye black under one eye. He was asked about that too.

“He was the first real big character,” Dart said of Skywalker. “There’s nothing really too significant about it other than I’m a big Star Wars fan and I kind of just attributed it to his scar. I liked him as a character.”

If Dart is Anakin, does that make Lane Kiffin Obi-Wan Kenobi? Dart went with a different member of the Jedi for his comparison.

“I’d say the only right character would have to be Yoda. His knowledge, I’m constantly learning things from him day in and day out and I think you could go across the college football landscape and talk to any coach or player and they’d all say he’s one of the best if not the best offensive minds so he’s definitely someone I really look up to in that regard.”

Slow the Rebels down, the Cats must.