ESPN names ‘area of concern’ for Ole Miss in 2025
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Ole Miss is 21-5 over the last 2 seasons, and there’s a lot of excitement for Lane Kiffin‘s team in 2025. Every team, though, faces some uncertainty with at least one position.
This week, ESPN named an “area of concern” for every team in its post-spring top 25. Under Kiffin, Ole Miss has been one of the SEC’s top offensive teams. ESPN’s Harry Lyles Jr., though, isn’t sure about Austin Simmons taking over at quarterback for Jaxson Dart.
Austin Simmons seems like a talented individual — we’re talking about someone who is athletically gifted enough to play baseball for Ole Miss as well. But anytime you are replacing one of the better quarterbacks in your conference, in this case Jaxson Dart, who was a first-round NFL draft pick, there has to be some level of concern. But from what we’ve seen out of Simmons, there’s promise. His drive against Georgia last season, where he led a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the game while Dart was injured, should give the Ole Miss faithful something to be excited about.
As Lyles referenced, Simmons’ scoring drive in the Rebels’ win over Georgia impressed fans around the SEC. Simmons appeared in 9 games last season, going 19-of-32 passing for 282 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions. Half of Simmons’ passing attempts came in the season-opener against Furman. In the Georgia game, Simmons was 5-of-6 for 64 yards.
Rebels fans, though, can be reassured that Kiffin appears confident in his new starting QB. Simmons is one of the 3 players who will represent Ole Miss at SEC Media Days next week in Atlanta.
Simmons is in his third year with the program, having redshirted in 2023 before making his Rebels debut last season.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
