Jaxson Dart joins elite SEC football history book in record time

On Thursday, Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart put the finishing touches on an illustrious career. The Rebels thoroughly defeated Duke in the Gator Bowl, 52-20. Outside of Ole Miss having a 10+ win season for the third-straight year, the headline was Dart.

He didn’t intentionally try to steal the spotlight from the program or his teammates. But he did. After the confetti fell and trophies were handed out, Dart was a brand new member of the SEC 12K club. Dart surpassed 12,000 yards of total offense in his career, joining Aaron Murray, Drew Lock and Tim Tebow as the only other SEC players to do so.

In his three years in Oxford, Miss., the former five-star prospect finished his career with 10,617 yards passing and 72 touchdowns. He also ran for 1,498 yards and 12 touchdowns as a Rebel. But for his career, including his time at Southern Cal, he threw for 11,970 yards and 81 touchdowns while running for 1,541 yards and 14 more scores.

But, not only did he join some elite company Thursday, Dart did it in record time.

It only took Jaxson Dart 45 games to eclipse 12,000 yards of total offense.

Lock did it in 50 games at Missouri. Murray did it in 52 at Georgia. And Tebow did it in 55 at Florida. The ascension up the record books for Dart has been as meteoric a rise as any.

He set the single-season Ole Miss record for total offense in the Gator Bowl against broke Chad Kelly‘s single-season record of 4,542 in 2015. Dart also broke Kelly’s 2015 Ole Miss record of 4,042 passing yards in a season.

As a Rebel, Dart is first in passing yards, first in wins, first in 300-yard passing games, first in total offense and second in touchdown passes only behind Eli Manning.

Jaxson Dart’s final college game featured one of the best throws of his career. pic.twitter.com/BOj8CKSrwq

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 3, 2025

Jaxson Dart’s legacy will be remembered, well, forever.

“I told my teammates, told my coaches, told my mom before the game that I’m going to leave everything I have on that field,” Dart said. “I played the game the way that I play it, and I don’t really look into the future of whatever. I’m just there for the moment and I’m going to compete.”

At a time when Lane Kiffin was looking to replace one of the most successful quarterbacks in program history in Matt Corral, Dart stepped in and never checked up.

“If feel like he did this similar game against Penn State in a bowl game last year,” Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said. “I don’t know if the stats were quite as large, but similar defense, it was (Duke head coach) Manny (Diaz’s) defense at Penn State, and he made just a lot of great, really accurate throws. Players made plays for him, Trey was playing that day. But this was a really good game.”

Austin Simmons will have the tall task of replacing Jaxson Dart in 2025 and beyond.

And speaking of Corral, Kiffin mentioned him and how he sees some parallels from 2022 and now.

“I probably wouldn’t have been so confident if we hadn’t done some of this before. I feel like when Matt Corral left, I feel like a lot of people thought we’re going to have this downswing and that was just kind of a Matt Corral thing,” Kiffin said after the game. “Our team, I know we won 10 games, we won 11 the year before, that’s 21 in two years, but our team this year was a better team.

“We lost three one-score games that two of them we have the ball up by four with two, two and a half minutes left and make a couple 1st downs and we win the game. The team before went 4-0 in one-score games, so we were actually a better team as you look at now you’ve got 10 wins and double-digit wins. That doesn’t happen very often with SEC teams and the good bowl teams.”

The heir apparent to the program record book GOAT, Simmons got everyone’s attention November 9. When he orchestrated a scoring drive in the rain against College Football Playoff Georgia, folks started to buy the hype.

Now, he will be tasked with leading the Ole Miss offense even further than Dart. Is it possible? Sure. And Kiffin thinks he knows so.

“He had this big brother show him every way to do every single thing right except for making his own plays up at the end,” Kiffin said of Simmons. “So that’s so valuable. It’s one thing just to learn how a guy works, but how he prepares, how he works, how he treats people, how he wins his team over. Austin, that’s a really awesome thing Austin got to experience.”

Sheesh pic.twitter.com/eD8RHVedGR

— Grove Enthusiast (@powderblue38655) November 11, 2024

If all of this wasn’t enough, let’s run down the record book list and what Jaxson Dart has done.

• Total Offense – Career: 12,117 (1st)
• Total Offense – Season: 4,774 (1st)
• Passing Yards – Career: 10,617 (1st)
• Passing Yards – Season: 4,279 (1st)
• Wins: 28 (1st)
• 300-Yard Games: 15 (1st)
• 400-Yard Games: 4 (T-1st)
• Total Offense – Game: 562 (1st)
• Touchdowns – Game: 6 (T-1st)
• Passing Yards – Game: 515 (1st)

And look, I get it. Most are going to look at 2024 and remember the head-scratching loss to Kentucky at home. Most are going to remember the overtime loss to LSU in Death Valley. And, yeah, everyone will criticize the seven-point loss in the Swamp with the CFP on the line.

But, you cannot gloss over the fact the Rebels had arguably one of its best players ever for three years. This season was the first time since the late 50’s and early 60’s Ole Miss has won 10+ games in multiple seasons in a four-year span.

None of it happens without Jaxson Dart. That’s what you should remember.