Tre Harris' first season at Ole Miss among the nation's best, setting up for a bigger 2024
Once the Peach Bowl concluded and Ole Miss secured its first 11-win season in program history it would not have been a shock if Tre Harris decided to head on to the NFL and get his professional career started.
What happened instead was Harris announced in mid-December his intentions to return to Ole Miss for a final year, a season that is being dubbed ‘The Last Dance,’ by returning players such as quarterback Jaxson Dart.
One season in Oxford and in the Southeastern Conference was not enough for Harris, who was one of the top receivers in the conference despite an early season injury. Turns out the 2023 campaign for Harris was one of the best in the country, according to Pro Football Focus.
The people at PFF, who provide grades for every single player and team and game played has listed the top receivers from Power 5 schools with the best offense grades and Harris makes the top 10.
With an overall offense grade of 88.6 Harris had the sixth best grade. LSU’s Malik Nabers led the way with a grade of 93 followed by Virginia’s Malik Washington (91.1), Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison, Jr. (89.9), Washington’s Rome Odunze (89.3) and Missouri’s Luther Burden III (89.2) ahead of Harris.
The Louisiana Tech transfer led Ole Miss with 54 catches for 985 yards and eight touchdowns. The yardage was good enough for fifth in the SEC this season.
“Everybody’s full steam ahead and I feel like this win, especially, is going to catapult a lot of people to work even harder this offseason because we know how good we can really be,” Harris said after the Peach Bowl.
The Rebels are a trendy pick for the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024 and Harris is one of the key reasons why. An offense full of returning firepower led by Dart plus a defense re-loaded via another successful haul out of the transfer portal by Lane Kiffin has Ole Miss considered a way-too-early Top 10, possibly Top 5, preseason team next season.
Dart joined his Ole Miss teammates as one of the top quarterbacks to grade out for the 2023 season.
After completing his second season with the Rebels Dart earned an overall grade of 91.3 by PFF, making him fifth best among Power 5 quarterbacks. LSU’s Jayden Daniels (94.7), Oregon’s Bo Nix (93.1), Georgia’s Carson Beck (91.6) and Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel (91.6) graded out higher.
Dart threw for 3,364 yards and 24 touchdowns, completing 65.1 percent of his pass attempts, to finish as the third best SEC quarterback in 2023. He cut down on his interceptions from 2022 to last year by six.
“It’s pretty surreal and kind of hard to wrap your head around,” Dart said after the Peach Bowl. “I think we’re just a unique team, a unique group of guys that really bought into each other. We just wanted to play for each other and win for each other.”
Dart is already being considered one of the top returning quarterbacks in the SEC, if not the nation, along Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Beck.
