Spencer Sanders shares where he stands after spring football

Ole Miss quarterback Spencer Sanders put on quite a performance in the team’s Grove Bowl spring game Saturday. The Oklahoma State transfer scored four total touchdowns and added over 300 yards of offense.

Sanders has spent a good chunk of the spring limited due to a shoulder injury. But the game was a reminder of the talent and ability of the former Cowboys starter and first-team All-Big 12 quarterback.

After the game, Sanders talked about where he feels he is at in getting settled within the Rebels program.

“There’s guys here that helped me come a long way, like you said, check off those boxes,” Sanders said. “There’s a lot of guys that are very supportive of me here and helping me. I’m very grateful for those guys. I couldn’t do it without the five in front of me and the four outside and the one guy next to me.”

Sanders was one of two transfer brought into the Ole Miss quarterback room along with LSU transfer Walker Howard. While Howard is a young prospects who left the Tigers after just one season, Sanders is an experienced four-year Power Five starter.

But despite that pedigree, he was not guaranteed a starting job in Oxford when he committed. Rebels starting quarterback and former five-star prospect Jaxson Dart is the incumbent starter and head coach Lane Kiffin has emphasized it was nothing Dart did that made him so aggressive in the portal.

It was instead a matter of circumstance and his role as the head coach. Dart was the only scholarship quarterback in the room. Ole Miss needed more talent behind him to be push him and provide depth in the case of any injury.

He went and did that with arguably the best transfer quarterback duo haul in the country.

Spencer Sanders and the rest of the quarterbacks showed out in the spring game

All three quarterbacks played really well during the Grove Bowl.

Spencer Sanders was 19-for-27 passing for 265 yards, three touchdowns and an interception plus 72 rushing yards and another touchdown on the ground in the spring game. Jaxson Dart was 18 of 37 for 302 yards and one touchdown.

Walker Howard, who split his reps between the two teams, was 11-for-13 for 184 yards and three passing touchdowns in addition to a rushing touchdown.

“I thought all three guys made plays, made out of rhythm competitive plays,” Kiffin said. “I thought earlier there were some really good in-rhythm timing plays, especially some passes to the backs. So, and then they made some as they went along. You could see the heat, the tempo, wear down the defense and guys made a lot of plays when the defensive rush was tired.”