Ole Miss Rebels QB Jaxson Dart: 'I See Myself As The Starter'
Ole Miss Rebels starting quarterback Jaxson Dart led the Rebels to an 8-5 season and a Texas Bowl berth in 2022.
Despite that, head coach Lane Kiffin brought not one, but two extremely talented quarterbacks to Oxford, in Walker Howard and Spencer Sanders, setting up an unprecedented three-way quarterback battle during spring football.
And while many have already counted Dart out of the competition, Dart will not be going down without a fight and is looking forward to proving it over the next few weeks.
“To be honest, I see myself as the starter,” Dart said “I had Year 1 and I kind of established myself. Now I have Year 2 and I’m getting more bonds with the guys on the team and being a leader. I feel like I’ve taken ownership of that and I’m just ready to do my job and I’m loving where I’m at right now. I expect myself to have a great spring and keep performing like I’m performing.”
That is not to say that Dart was resentful of the new quarterback additions.
As a matter of fact, he has already benefitted greatly from both players - particularly the one that is seen as the biggest threat to his job in Sanders.
"They are both great guys," Dart said. "They’re great competitors and love the game of football. For me, I’m still 19 years old. Spencer has been a big earpiece for me, just being able to learn from his experiences. He’s played a lot of football. Walker is the younger one of us. So we’ve taught him what we’ve experienced. They’re each super talented, so it’s fun to go out there and compete."
As a matter of fact, Dart and Sanders have extremely similar talents and skill sets, to the point where even their production on the field was extremely similar.
In 2022, Dart completed 226 of 362 passes for 2,974 yards and 20 touchdowns with 11 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 143.6. He also rushed 128 times for 614 yards and another score.
In 2021 - the last full season for Sanders - the 23-year-old completed 243 of 392 passes for 2,839 yards and 20 touchdowns, with 12 interceptions, and rushed for 668 yards and six scores on 146 carries.
And in 2022, he was on pace to do much of the same, completing 212 of 368 passes for 2,642 yards and 17 touchdowns with nine interceptions, while rushing for 391 yards and on 107 carries with two scores in just 10 games.
So what makes Dart so confident that he can fend off the extremely experience Sanders?
By having faith in his coaches and the system, and the meteoric rise it helped former Rebels QB great Matt Corral attain in 2020 and 2021.
"I think just my confidence in the system," Dart said. "I talked with Coach Kiffin about this a lot as well as Coach Weis. You have to look at how Matt (Corral) was from year one to year two and his comfortability in the system and how he was able to operate things. For me, that’s what I’m striving for, to have a big year like he did.
Whatever the case, Dart will have to re-earn the starting job over the next few weeks.
But with the leg up he does have with his knowledge of the system, one has to believe he, at least for now, holds the inside track.
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