Before we get into today’s review of last night’s Gator Bowl and this Ole Miss football team, we should pay tribute to Jaxson Dart, whose name belongs up there in the pantheon of the greatest Ole Miss quarterbacks. I am talking about the two Mannings, Chunkin’ Charlie Conerly, Jake Gibbs and Glynn Griffing.
Most importantly, in his three seasons as the Rebels’ QB1, Dart led Ole Miss to 29 victories. He threw for 10,604 yards and 68 touchdowns and ran for 1,457 yards and 12 touchdowns. Only three players in the 92-year history of the Southeastern Conference have produced more total offense. Dart always has played with poise and has often has played despite injuries, two reasons why I can’t fathom his relatively low draft status.
I read this week where one publication has Dart rated the 14th best quarterback available in this year’s NFL draft. What am I missing? He makes every throw and is especially accurate on deep balls. He runs well and hard. He has the “it” factor. He makes players around him better. His teammates love him. While so many of college football stars have opted out of bowl games, Dart chose to play in his.
Duke coach Manny Diaz alluded to that postgame, saying: “The thing that just jumped out today is a special quarterback who played special. It’s been well-documented a lot of guys who have had a career like he’s had don’t play in bowl games necessarily, and so the way that he played today and some of the throws that he made were elite.”
Yet every draft analysis I’ve seen has Dart rated behind Miami’s Cam Ward, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Georgia’s Carson Beck. I’d rather have Dart than any of those others. It’s not even close on the other two SEC quarterbacks.
All that said, I frankly did not understand why Dart was in the game in the fourth quarter, throwing and running long after the outcome had been decided. Two reasons why I don’t understand: One, there’s always the risk of injury; two, why not play Dart’s heir apparent, the immensely talented Austin Simmons, give him more snaps, and prepare him for 2025?
Ole Miss led 38-7 at the end of three quarters and 45-7 early in the fourth. Yet, Simmons finally entered the game with a minute, two seconds remaining. Lane Kiffin said postgame he tried to substitute for Dart earlier but that Dart refused to leave the game. Kiffin clearly believed Dart had earned the right to play as long as he wanted. Just as clearly, Kiffin wasn’t happy, at all, when Dart ignored a call from the sideline for a running play and instead threw a picture-perfect, 69-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Watkins with 1:27 left to play to make it 52-14 Ole Miss. It was a bad look, and Kiffin said he apologized to Diaz about the needless score after the game.
My only other nitpicking of the Ole Miss effort in this Gator Bowl would be the comical fake goal early in the still scoreless game when placekicker Caden Davis’s pass was intercepted. Kiffin must really hate field goals.
Otherwise, Ole Miss thoroughly dominated a nine-win Duke team in every phase of the game.
As they did for most of the 2024 season, the Rebels looked like a team that deserved to be in college football’s first 12-team championship tournament. That’s why the 2024 season will be remembered both for Dart’s excellence and for what might have been.
The Rebels finish with 10 double-digit victories and three excruciatingly close losses to Kentucky, LSU and Florida, all inferior (to Ole Miss) teams. Ole Miss was surely one of the nation’s 12 best teams, but just as surely didn’t do what they needed to do to qualify for the playoffs. The 20-17, home loss to Kentucky (4-8, 1-7) was particularly disqualifying.
But, said Kiffin postgame, “We’re just getting started.”
“We can keep getting better,” he said.
“We can keep adding pieces,” he said.
There are so many pieces to replace, including, most importantly, Dart. But there’s also Walter Nolen, the best Ole Miss defensive lineman since at least Ben Williams, several outstanding wide receivers, several terrific edge rushers, the remarkable J.J. Pegues, four starting offensive linemen and talented running back Ulysses Bentley (sadly it appears we may never learn why he was used so sparingly).
Kiffin has proven himself to be the king of the transfer portal. He will need to prove it again. Currently, there’s no reason to believe he won’t.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
