Friedlander: Just being good isn’t good enough for Jaxson Dart and his motivated Ole Miss Rebels
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WINSTON-SALEM, NC – There are a lot of different ways to describe a 34-point road win against a power conference opponent.
A wakeup call isn’t usually among them.
But that’s how Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart summed up his team’s 40-6 victory at Wake Forest on Saturday.
It’s not as if the 5th-ranked Rebels sleepwalked their way through the game. They rolled up 649 yards of total offense, 272 on the ground. They forced 3 turnovers, recorded 4 sacks and held a 3rd straight opponent without a touchdown.
It was a good effort. Good enough for most college football teams.
But for a team that has set its bar as high as it can go, it wasn’t good enough because of some loose ends that included 114 yards in penalties, 2 turnovers of their own and several missed opportunities.
“I felt like this is what we needed as a team,” Dart said. “I felt like it was the ugliest 600-yard game you could play. We did a lot of really good things and then just didn’t finish. You saw how explosive we are. At the same time, we hurt ourselves. It was a good wakeup call. It’s definitely something that’s going to light a fire under us going forward.”
Lighting the fire isn’t exactly the issue for Ole Miss. Judging by the way Dart threw his body around at Wake Forest, especially on a 13-yard touchdown run in which he lowered his shoulder and plowed over a defender on the way to the end zone, it’s clear that the fuse has already been lit.
The real task for the Rebels as they rapidly approach the more challenging tests to come in the SEC is harnessing that energy in a way that takes full advantage of the talented roster Lane Kiffin has assembled.
It’s a stockpile of firepower centered around Dart.
The former Southern Cal transfer is the trigger man for a prolific tempo offense that has put up 56 points and 692 yards per game through the first 3 weeks. Dart’s contribution to that production – an FBS-leading 1,172 passing yards and an .830 completion percentage that ranks 2nd only to Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel – has catapulted him to the head of his class as a Heisman Trophy frontrunner.
But his powerful right arm is only part of the reason for his success. And by extension, his team’s.
“Jaxson Dart has a different mentality,” running back Henry Parrish said. “Plus-2 mentality. We talk all day about it in practice and it carries over into the game.”
https://twitter.com/OMRebelNation/status/1835290924651339874
“Plus-2” refers to giving it everything you’ve got, plus 2 more.
It’s just as fitting a description for the star power surrounding Dart. In this case, the star quarterback’s Plus-2 are leading receiver Tre Harris and top rusher Henry Parrish.
Harris, who started his career at Louisiana Tech, is a versatile pass-catcher who formed an immediate chemistry with Dart almost from the moment they arrived from the transfer portal before last season.
The 6-2, 205-pound senior has the length to get his hands on virtually everything that’s thrown his way and the physicality to outmuscle defenders for catches in traffic. He’s had 8 or more receptions in every game so far and is on pace to shatter Elijah Moore’s single-season record of 86 receptions with plenty of room to spare.
Like Harris and Dart, Parrish also arrived through the portal. But he’s no stranger to Ole Miss.
The speedy running back played his first 2 seasons in Oxford before following his position coach Kevin Smith to Miami in 2022. When Smith came back to the Rebels this season, Parrish did, too. And he’s more than made up for the absence of Quinshon Judkins, whose departure to Ohio State opened the door for his return.
He scored 4 touchdowns in Week 2 against Middle Tennessee State, ran for more than 130 yards in each of the past 2 games and is averaging nearly 8 yards per carry while giving his team an offensive diversity that’s been almost impossible to defend.
“This is what I pictured,” Parrish said. “Playing in the SEC again with my brothers and just finishing what I started.”
Finishing is a common theme among the Rebels this season. For most of Parrish’s teammates, though, the starting point is much more recent.
And painful.
It’s a journey that began last November, when with a chance at earning a spot in the SEC Championship Game on the line, they were pummeled 52-17 by Georgia in Athens. After giving up 300 rushing yards to the Dawgs and 611 total, Kiffin made it a priority to bulk up his defense – especially up front – to prevent it from happening again.
So far, so good.
“It’s completely different than any time we’ve been here,” Kiffin said after the dominant win at Wake Forest. “Obviously, since the Georgia game that was a priority.”
Lane Kiffin on Ole Miss' strategy of adding defensive players via the portal this offseason.
Says it all started after losing to Georgia:
"We have not been a very big team, especially defensively.
"I love our players, I love how hard they play, but length matters." pic.twitter.com/hOovM4R3pS
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) December 21, 2023
The additions of Walter Nolan from Texas A&M and Princely Umanmielen from Florida to go along with standout holdover Jared Ivey have transformed a liability into a strength and the backbone of a defense that has yet to allow a touchdown this season.
“I mean, that sounds really good … 3 games without a touchdown. And at Ole Miss,” Kiffin said. “We’ve come a long way over there. A lot of credit goes to the defensive staff and our collective.”
Not too much credit, though. Not yet at least.
While the Rebels proved in Week 3 that they can still win and win convincingly even when they don’t bring their “A” game, they won’t always be able to get away with it once conference play begins.
The tests will get much tougher after Saturday’s final nonconference tuneup against Georgia Southern. Starting with an SEC opener against a Kentucky team that came within an eyelash of taking down Georgia last week.
Still, with the conference doing away with its divisional format and a schedule that doesn’t include Alabama, Texas or Tennessee and has its 2 more difficult games – Georgia and Oklahoma – at home, the door is wide open for Ole Miss to take the next step in its rise under Kiffin and finally break through to the SEC Championship Game.
As long as it heeds Saturday’s Wake-up call and doesn’t get caught napping.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
