Lane Kiffin Discusses 'Ideal' Situation For Ole Miss QB Competition in Fall Camp
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss Rebels quarterback room is deep, and its battle for the starting spot might once again stretch into the season. That's not Lane Kiffin's hope, but he did admit it was possible on Wednesday.
Following Ole Miss' first practice of fall camp, the Rebels' head coach was made available to the media where he discussed multiple facets of his team's quarterback battle, including his stance that the competition is not a bad thing for the program.
"All four guys out there getting reps and rotating through the different units," Kiffin said. "That's definitely as deep as we have been here. It's neat to have all those guys together. Nowadays, that's very rare to have in the quarterback room. That's obviously a great problem to have. It'll be exciting to watch them compete and develop."
Last season, Ole Miss did not name Jaxson Dart its official starting quarterback until a few weeks into the season. Dart battled it out with Luke Altmyer leading up to the decision, and although Kiffin does not want a battle stretching into the season in an ideal world, he believes that sometimes it's unavoidable.
"I would prefer for it not to," Kiffin said. "I always think it's better to have your guy, but you don't want to risk choosing the wrong one. There are times where we have gone into a season not knowing. People make the wrong decisions all the time.
"I just try to be really careful and not say 'That's the guy,' and you haven't seen him play with the current team. Ideally, we would not go into that, but if it doesn't show itself, then I feel like you have to."
Dart described part of last year's competition as a "whirlwind" at the time. These position battles can be uncomfortable for players, but at the end of the day, the head coach is looking to put his best 11 men on the field, including at quarterback.
Kiffin seems to be in steady contact with his quarterbacks, including Dart who won the battle a season ago. Now, he is attempting to do it again.
"I've talked to [Dart]," Kiffin said. "Those quarterback competitions, those have to happen and go later than the player wants it to. That's not my job to please one player. I've got to do what's best for the team."
Kiffin said during the spring that Dart was among the most improved players on his roster, only committing one turnover over the course of camp. Now he will look to continue to possibly set himself apart from the pack and be the Rebels' QB1 once again when Ole Miss hosts Mercer on Sept. 2.
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