Tough Decision for Kiffin: Who Will be the Rebels’ Next QB?
Image from OutKick.com
OXFORD, MS (PSF) — When you think of Ole Miss football, you see a high-flying offense, lots of points, with a couple of sarcastic tweets from their head ball coach, Lane Kiffin. It seems Oxford has become the perfect place for a quarterback to transfer. Like moths to a flame, QBs from around the country have flocked to play under Kiffin. Over the last week, the Ole Miss Rebels have added two highly-touted quarterbacks to their squad. A wily veteran in Spencer Sanders, who has been running the Oklahoma State offense for the last four years, and Walker Howard, a 4-star recruit out of high school who was not given any playing time at LSU.
Image by Rebelwalk.com (Jaxson Dart)
While this may seem like an offensive coach’s dream, it will be a hard decision to make. They already have Jaxson Dart, their starter in 2022 and a transfer from USC two years ago. He put up 2,974 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions, with a 72.9 Quarterback Rating (QBR). While these are not “blow you away” numbers, he has shown flashes of greatness and is only a true Junior next year. It will be hard for Kiffin to keep him in Oxford if he does not end up winning the job.
Image by AL.com (Spencer Sanders)
For Spencer Sanders, this decision to join the Rebels was seen as a questionable one because of the competition with Dart and now Howard, but Sanders seems to know what he wants and has proven that he is a great player. At Oklahoma State, he amassed 9,553 passing yards, 67 passing touchdowns, and 1,956 rushing yards with 18 touchdowns on the ground. He ran a similar offense with the Cowboys and he should be able to step in relatively easily. He certainly has the best career of the three but does not have a chance to be Ole Miss’s QB of the future since it is his last year of eligibility.
Image by AL.com (Walker Howard)
The third option is a wildcard, LSU transfer Walker Howard, he was a highly-touted recruit coming out of high school, a four-star, rated 40th in the country for the class of 2022. He achieved notoriety for recording a TikTok with current LSU head coach Brian Kelly when he committed last year. He has seen little to no action in a college game and has amassed only four attempts for seven yards. He left LSU because he was not given a shot at the starting position after one year there. He certainly has the talent to compete and it will be interesting to see what happens in Oxford this spring and heading into team camp in August. Lane Kiffin will be faced with a difficult decision, but it is one that many coaches in college football would love to make.