The first quarter of this Ole Miss Football season went about as well as possible in Year 2 under Lane Kiffin.

The questions Ole Miss faced in the preseason have largely been answered, and in a favorable way for a team whose expectations are rapidly changing and whose ceiling continues to rise.

We expected the offense to be dynamic, and that unit has not disappointed. The Rebels lead the country in scoring, averaging  52.7 points per game. But we didn’t know who would replace Elijah Moore’s production. The first two games saw Dontario Drummond break out for a pair of 100-yard games and 4 touchdowns. As opponents committed more attention to Braylon Sanders on the outside, Drummond routinely found mismatches in the slot.

But a new player also is emerging, a development that could make this offense next to impossible to stop. That’s Jonathan Mingo’s production opposite of Sanders. Mingo had 6 catches for 136 yards and a touchdown in Week 3. He’s a big, physical receiver with a similar build to AJ Brown and Laquon Treadwell, and almost seemed to have loftier expectations placed on him from the time he arrived in Oxford simply because of the similar build and the fact that he also wears No. 1, as silly as that sounds.

Mingo showed flashes of promise in his first 2 years but struggled with consistency, drops and creating separation in 1-on-1 matchups. He’s seemingly rectified all of those and has emerged as a legitimate outside threat. Mingo looks more accustomed to Jeff Lebby in Lane Kiffin’s systems and undoubtedly looks more comfortable moving with the football after the catch. It’s also plainly visible that he got stronger over the offseason, making him an even tougher assignment for opposing defenders without help.

“I feel there are some plays out there I still could have been doing better, but I feel like I’m playing faster and more confident than last year,” Mingo said. “I’m just going to keep building on that week by week.”

He has 15 catches for 290 yards and 3 touchdowns through 3 games. Above all else, he’s in the process of making this Ole Miss offense nearly impossible to neutralize. If he can continue this level of play into the conference portion of Ole Miss’ schedule, there are only so many things secondaries can do to try to cover all 3 receivers at one time.

Sanders is too quick to leave in 1-on-1 situations for long periods, Drummond’s sure-handedness over the middle is garnering more attention by the week and that has likely in part led to Mingo’s emergence over the past 2 games. Ole Miss has yet to be tested against a great defense, and that will soon change when the Rebels go to Tuscaloosa in 2 weeks, but this offense looks like it may be even better despite losing Moore.

“I feel like we are the best receiving corps in the country,” Mingo said. “I just feel like we haven’t hit our peak yet, and it’s going to show in the next couple of weeks. We are just going to try to get our chemistry down. Any week it could be me, Dontario Drummond, or Braylon Sanders, so teams have to scheme for all of us. It’s just going to be hard trying to guard us the rest of the season.”

Mingo is surely doing his part to make that declaration become prophetic. Much tougher tests loom, but with the way it runs the football and having a Heisman favorite in Matt Corral distributing the football to these receivers, it is hard to believe the Rebels will be slowed down successfully on offense.

As Mingo continues to come into his own, this team’s ceiling continues to rise.