Ole Miss’ offense reached new heights the last few years with Lane Kiffin and Jaxson Dart. The Rebels finished 11-2 in 2023 and 10-3 in 2024, marking the program’s first consecutive 10-win seasons since 1959-60. Dart led the nation in total offense (4,774 yards) and shattered several program records en route to All-SEC honors. Even though Dart is in the NFL now, selected No. 25 overall by the New York Giants, Ole Miss’ offense hasn’t missed a beat under its new QB1, Austin Simmons.
In his first career start, Simmons went 20-31 for 341 passing yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. The sophomore from Miami, FL backed up Dart the past two seasons, appearing in nine games last year and finishing 19-32 for 282 yards and two touchdowns. When Dart suffered an ankle injury during the first quarter vs. No. 2 Georgia, Simmons stepped in and led a 75-yard touchdown drive, going 5-6 for 64 yards before Dart returned and completed the 28-10 upset.
Outside of a few mistakes, Simmons looked cool and collected as Ole Miss’ starting quarterback on Saturday vs. Georgia State. In addition to 400 passing yards, the Rebels racked up 295 yards on the ground, overcoming a somewhat slow start to thump the Panthers 63-7. Those 695 yards of total offense were the most in Week 1 of any FBS team.
“Well, the tempo is the first thing,” Stoops said of the challenges Ole Miss’ offense presents. “Obviously, they go extremely fast, and they dress things up very well. They do what they do, but they present it differently, and they present it very fast. And they have very good players out there doing it. Typical, for them, they’re, they’re good in all areas.
“I’m very impressed with Austin Simmons. They have four transfer wide receivers who are playmakers who can run. Very impressed with their tight ends; very, very good players.”
Simmons is only a sophomore, but already has his bachelor’s degree from Ole Miss in multidisciplinary studies. The former four-star prospect graduated high school early, too, reclassifying from 2025 to 2023. Stoops compared his path in Oxford to the one redshirt freshman Cutter Boley could be on in Lexington. Boley, of course, backed up Brock Vandagriff last year and is currently No. 2 on the depth chart behind Zach Calzada, who looked shaky in his Kentucky debut vs. Toledo.
“You look at the progression of Austin Simmons,” Stoops said. “He’s going into his third year, and, man, he looks good. When you sit there and say, in one aspect, he’s inexperienced, but he’s really not. This is his third year in the system. He stepped in last year, played extremely well against Georgia. They didn’t miss a beat. I had to go back and look, like, wait a minute here.”
Kentucky’s defensive line performed well vs. Toledo, sacking Tucker Gleason three times for a loss of 21 yards. Getting to Simmons will be tougher and imperative to rattling the Rebels. Kentucky sacked Jaxson Dart four times in last year’s 20-17 upset in Oxford and held Ole Miss to just 1-10 on third downs and 353 total yards.
“Trying to get the quarterback uncomfortable is always important,” Stoops said. “I think what they do with their tempo, with their play actions, and keeping you off balance, they do a nice job of making it comfortable for their quarterback. We have to mix it up in many different ways. We’ve had some success in the past with it, but it’s always a challenge, each and every year, so we have to continue to mix it up on them.”
A key play in last year’s upset was Stoops’ decision to go for it on 4th and 7 at the Kentucky 20-yard line, a gamble that paid off with a 63-yard completion from Brock Vandagriff to Barion Brown to set up the winning touchdown. It was an uncharacteristic move by Stoops, who scoffed when asked if Kiffin would try to retaliate by running the score up on the Cats in Lexington.
“Ole Miss tries to score every time they touch the ball, no matter who they’re playing. That’s not going to change with Lane, you know what I mean? So it’s your job to stop them.”