The competition to be the next starting quarterback at Ole Miss underway

The most intriguing quarterback battle at Ole Miss in recent memory is underway.

With spring practice beginning on Tuesday, so did the the task of naming Matt Corral’s successor and the Rebels next signal caller.

Returning players Luke Altmyer and Kinkead Dent are joined in the quarterbacks room with Southern California transfer Jaxson Dart are taking snaps and getting reps with goal of trying to formulate the pecking order on the depth chart sooner rather than later.

If there was such a thing, and there probably is, oddsmakers would have Dart as the heavy favorite to land the job after all the fanfare of his recruitment along with fellow USC teammate Michael Trigg, with Altmyer the close-ish second.

But, fair is fair and third-year head coach Lane Kiffin is planning to keep it an open competition for all three quarterbacks and let their performance on the practice fields over the next four weeks do the talking.

“All three guys will have a chance. We’ve been in a lot of these over the years, more than we’d like actually,” Kiffin said following Tuesday’s practice. “I mean at one point, three, four, five, six I think there were six or seven years in a row we had a new starter between last year, at USC, Alabama and FAU. And so, we’ve been very used to not having a returning starter. Really just maybe one year out of all that. We’ve been in this, but again it could be good because it makes everybody better because there’s competition.”

In a perfect world, Kiffin would like to have his starting quarterback figured out now and take away one less learning curve in a spring where there are a lot of new faces with 12 transfers players already at their new school just months, or weeks, removed from playing at another program.

Having his quarterback figured out and nailed down would also help new co-offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. know who he will be working with the most as he installs whatever new wrinkles he brought with him to Oxford.

But, the world is not always perfect and when planning to get a timeline to work with you does not always happen. Kiffin is aware of that and is happy to work at whatever speed he needs to in order to make sure Dent or Altmyer is as prepared as possible come Sept. 3.

“Always in these things, it would be best for it to be early from the standpoint of the team and everybody knowing, but we’re not going to rush it,” Kiffin said. “These things have gone on forever, we ideally never want it to go into the season when they’re playing. That’s never ideal, but that’s even happened once. So, you gotta try to make the right decision and the more time, the more input, the more information going on. We don’t have preseason games, so the more you can get, the better, so you need to be patient sometimes.”

As for how the other players are taking to the competition and life without Corral as the search for his successor begins, all positive after day one.

Whichever ends up taking the snaps on the first drive of the 2022 season, they have the support of their teammates who are looking forward to seeing the competition unfold.

“I think we’re in good hands,” said Jonathan Mingo said. “We got two young quarterbacks. Both of them are really good, like to compete. Just trying to win the job. So, to me it’s going to be exciting to watch them do their thing this spring.”