Lane Kiffin reveals change to Ole Miss game plan, Jaxson Dart

With Ole Miss coming off of its first loss of the season, coach Lane Kiffin revealed Monday that the Rebels will make a slight adjustment to the way they use quarterback Jaxson Dart.

Kiffin was asked whether the absence of running back Zach Evans due to a knee injury affected the play calling Saturday against LSU as Ole Miss’ ground game struggled. However, he responded by saying the change was also partly due to a decision by the Rebels not to call as many running plays for Dart going forward.

“There’s a little bit there, but we had really made a decision moving forward not to run the quarterback very much,” Kiffin said. “So you didn’t see him run very much in that game or moving forward just from a long-term perspective. Obviously, it would be nice to have a full, healthy backfield when you do that.”

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Dart made an impact with his legs in the first half of the season, rushing for at least 40 yards in five of the Rebels’ first seven games this year. That included performances of more than 100 yards against both Tulsa and Auburn. However, he was limited to just seven yards on 10 carries Saturday.

True freshman running back Quinshon Judkins led the backfield with 111 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries. Outside of that, however, Ole Miss had just six yards rushing as it averaged 3.2 yards per carry as a team.

Saturday’s showing was extremely out of character for the Rebels, who still lead the SEC this season with 252.1 rushing yards per game. With Lane Kiffin’s decision not to run Jaxson Dart as much, it only makes it that much more crucial that Evans rejoins Judkins in the backfield this week.

Ole Miss will look to get its rushing attack back on track when it travels to College Station to face a struggling Texas A&M team at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.