Ole Miss Morning-After: SEC West can be won, but Rebels first have to get their house in order
In this edition of the Ole Miss Morning-After Show, Ben Garrett (Ole Miss Spirit/On3) and Bradley Sowell (former Rebel offensive lineman and eight-year NFL veteran) have the full rundown of the Rebels’ 37-20 win over Tulane.
“I commend Tulane,” Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said afterwards. “That’s a really good team that played really hard. Obviously gave us a lot of challenges today, just like they’ve given a lot of people. They won the Cotton Bowl one year ago. They’re a Top 25 team. They’re well-coached and played really hard. They’re very tough up front in their front seven on defense and gave us a lot of problems.
“I commend our players, too. May not feel like it, but game ended 27-3. After they made their early run, halfway through the second quarter, we outscored them 27-3 the rest of the game. That’s some guys doing some things right.”
The SEC West is wide open, and Ole Miss, through two weeks, has as good a case as any other school.
But Tulane proved the Rebels are still very much a work-in-progress as a contender.
Fortunately, Ole Miss has, inarguably, one of the conference’s best quarterbacks in Jaxson Dart. Dart’s near-solo heroics on Saturday were, dare we say, Matt Corral-ish?
“Obviously we came out first drive and started off really hot,” Dart said of the offense in the postgame locker room. “Things kind of slowed down from then on. I just kind of wanted to be the piece of our team that stayed consistent throughout the game (and) never got too high or too low. There’s a lot of emotions that happen throughout the game, and you kind of have to be that way, especially as a quarterback.
“I just want to be a guy the team can rely on, especially in critical downs and stuff like that. When it got to that point, I wanted the ball in my hands.”
