Ole Miss opened its season with a blowout win over Mercer, 73-7. Certainly, no surprises there.
As with all Week 1 games against inferior opponents, it would be unwise to draw too much from this game. However, there were some obvious positives to take away from the Rebels’ season-opening win ahead of a much tougher matchup against No. 24 Tulane next week in southern Louisiana.
For now, here’s Ole Miss’ stock report following a dominant Week 1 win:
Player of the Week: QB Jaxson Dart
Jaxson Dart was otherworldly Saturday against a vastly overpowered Mercer squad. Dart, who officially beat out Spencer Sanders just prior to the start of the game, was playing with a chip on his shoulder and completed 18 of his 23 passing attempts for 334 yards and 4 touchdowns. About 90% of that came in the first half.
He started 11-11 with 234 yards and 3 touchdowns, all to WR Tre Harris (who we’ll get to in a minute).
A step up in production at QB is just what the doctor ordered for Lane Kiffin’s squad, and though Spencer Sanders was brought in as insurance, early reports look like he won’t be needed in the starting role. Tulane’s defense offers a step up in competition, let’s see how he looks against the Green Wave.
Freshman of the Week: LB Suntarine Perkins
Suntarine Perkins has arrived.
The former 5-star linebacker out of Raleigh, Mississippi stayed home and chose the Rebels over Alabama, Auburn, Florida (where he was originally committed), etc. You name the school, they likely wanted Perkins.
Saturday told everyone why. The true freshman led the Rebels with 9 tackles on the day, including 1 sack, 1 TFL and 1 pass deflection. Once again… he did this as a true freshman.
Elsewhere, true freshman Cayden Lee had a good day on offense for the Rebels, hauling in his first career touchdown pass.
Newcomer TD Connection ?@SpenceSanders ➡️ @Cayden_X_Lee pic.twitter.com/fiXfEO2hVB
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 2, 2023
Biggest Surprise: WR Tre Harris
Tre Harris was bonkers Saturday afternoon against Mercer. As in, he broke the Ole Miss record for the most touchdown receptions in a single game with 4. Three of those 4 touchdowns came within the first 10 minutes of the game.
Here’s the touchdown that broke that record, which was held by a multitude of different Rebels across the years, including Elijah Moore in 2020 and Michael Trigg last year.
Notice how much time is remaining in the game.
Quad Harris™️@_treharris13 pic.twitter.com/sCRmYRGSN1
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 2, 2023
I don’t think anyone expected Harris to not make an immediate impact, but to break an Ole Miss record on Day 1 after transferring from Louisiana Tech is truly something. He finished his day with 6 receptions for 133 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Biggest Concern: Michael Pratt?
This is a cop-out answer, but it’s definitely Ole Miss’ biggest concern following Week 1. Truth be told, the Rebels did not really struggle greatly in one specific area Saturday. Penalties could be tapered back a bit, and Mercer did rush for nearly 100 yards, but I’ll chalk that up to early-season jitters.
Also, despite Mercer’s 93 rushing yards, they were held to an average of just 2.5 yards per carry Saturday.
Mercer starting QB Carter Peevy was simply not good enough to challenge Ole Miss. Michael Pratt, who completed 14 of his 15 passes for 294 yards and 4 touchdowns in Tulane’s easy win over South Alabama, definitely is.
That leap in competition could put some stress on Ole Miss’ DBs, who performed well Saturday. Pratt can stretch the defense with his running abilities as well, which makes his scout that much tougher.
Developing Trend: Dart to Harris is essentially Manning to Wayne. Overreaction much?
No, seriously, the Dart-Harris connection was unbelievable Saturday afternoon. Obviously, I’m kidding about the Manning to Wayne comparison.
The thing you have to understand is that these were not just dink and dunk passes that Harris took the distance against a bad Mercer secondary. Harris fought through contact on every TD reception he made, either in the form of breaking a tackle or just strong arming the ball away from a Mercer defender near the goal line.
This was probably the pair’s best connection of the day. Beautiful ball, beautiful adjustment and a great catch:
Two-time Tre
✌️ @_treharris13 pic.twitter.com/92xIeyf8h0
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 2, 2023
Kiffin took both Dart and Harris out of the game before the 4th quarter. The point is, this connection was there all day and could have scored 4 more times had Ole Miss been trying in the 2nd half.
Let’s see how it holds up against worthy competition.
Key Stat: 7-8 in the red zone
Even against Mercer, this is a good thing to see.
Ole Miss scored on all but 2 of its drives Saturday, losing a fumble in the first quarter and punting late in the game when Kiffin had already called the dogs off. Even better: The Rebels scored a touchdown on 6 of their 8 possessions in the red zone and kicked a field goal to finish 7-8 on the day from the red zone.
The field goal drive was probably the most disappointing of them all, actually. Ole Miss had the ball at the Mercer 1 but penalties and misfires forced a field goal instead of an easy Quinshon Judkins dive up the middle for 6.
First impression about Week 2 against Tulane: Rebels looks superior to Green Wave early
Tulane will still be a challenge, but Ole Miss looked the part and more Saturday against Mercer while Tulane kept things within 3 touchdowns against an iffy South Alabama squad. Without Tyjae Spears (who was so fun at RB for the Green Wave last season) I have questions about Tulane’s run game against the Rebels’ D-line, too.
As I said earlier in the piece, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions for next week’s battle from either Week 1 performances, but the Rebels (especially Dart) absolutely passed the eye test. The battle between Dart and Pratt will surely be a fun one to keep an eye on.
Ole Miss travels to Tulane to take on the Green Wave Saturday, with the game set to kick at 3:30 ET on ESPN2. Barring any very unusual developments, both teams should be comfortably within the AP Top 25.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
