Despite two losses earlier in the season to LSU and Kentucky, Ole Miss is still very much in the thick of the College Football Playoff conversation thanks to the meteoric play of QB Jaxson Dart, who put up an explosive 515 yards and 6 TDs in Saturdays 63-31 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. Caroline Fenton, Adam Breneman & Jason Fitz discuss Dart, Ole Miss Rebels and whether they can overcome their two losses to make a serious play for the expanded CFP bracket in 2024.

Hear the full conversation on the “College Football Enquirer” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

Ole Miss is back in business.

They're back.

We, we, we thought they were gone.

We thought they were gonna just write off and just never be talked about the rest of the season.

Lake Kiper was gonna quit.

Ole Miss beats Arkansas 63 to 31.

Absolutely dominates them on offense.

Jackson D 500 yards passing Charlie Weiss Junior, the offensive coordinator called one heck of a game.

All right.

They, they were the way they use pace and tempo to control that game.

That is like textbook lane Kiffin offense showed the tape from the Arkansas game.

That is what they do.

They play fast, they use tempo to their advantage.

They spread the defense out and their quarterback makes great decisions and distributes the ball on the perimeter.

It was perfectly executed and Ole Miss is, is not the driver's seat, but they're back in the mix after thinking they were knocked out with those two losses ear earlier in the season.

So it was exciting to see because I've been a fan of Jackson Dart.

I think he's a great quarterback and it was disappointing to see that loss to Kentucky.

The struggles, uh, he, he certainly him to play.

I wanna buy, I just, I want to buy Jackson Dart and Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss because on paper, everything about it makes sense.

Everything about his ability as an offensive play caller makes sense.

Everything about the amount of talent, Ole Miss has makes sense.

Everything about the way Ole Miss attacked the transfer portal to address their weaknesses.

It all makes sense to my very logic oriented mind.

What doesn't make sense that they already have two losses?

So like II, I have trust issues with Ole Miss, but I would love to see this because that's the absolute pandemonium that I need in my life.

The only thing that still gives me pause is Ole Miss is still struggling to run the football and if you look at their season stats, I think there may be top three, top five in the sec and rushing, but so much of that is over inflated by what we saw against lesser competition.

I mean, Ole Miss, even in a 63 point day was still only running the ball for about three yards of crack.

He struggled to run the football against Oklahoma the week before.

So that is what makes me nervous about Ole Miss is Jackson Dirk can take the game over with the ball in his hands, but I don't want him to every single week.

Sometimes you can just get so reliant on, hey, I can pick up 30 yards here and 40 yards there, which is what Ole Miss has done for you and that's what disappears when they play good teams.

And that's why, you know, there's, that's where the trust issues come from.

For me.

Adam not being able to run the football well, and having the defense doesn't play well, you're gonna lose every game you play.

But if you have a great defense, then you have explosive offense that, you know, maybe struggles to run the ball but can score points and throw the ball on the field.

That's an ok combination.

And, you know, I'm with you, I don't know if, how much I trust don't miss right now, but we're gonna find out a lot next week and, and see how they show up and play against the Georgia defense.

That, that's obviously really good.

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