Jaxson Dart and Ole Miss Rebels teammates can’t help but hype up Austin Simmons as the next great quarterback for Lane Kiffin

The Ole Miss Rebels have grown accustomed to seeing spectacular quarterback play ever since Lane Kiffin took over at head coach. Between Matt Corral and Jaxson Dart the Rebels have seen nearly 20,000 passing yards, almost 130 passing touchdowns, and just shy of 50 wins throughout the last five seasons. Now the Rebels are set to enter a new quarterback era in 2025.

Austin Simmons, a dual-sport, genius, wildly impressive athlete who entered college two full years early is set to take the helm now with expectations higher than they have ever been for the Ole Miss football program. The Rebels have won 10+ games three out of the last four years, and just barely missed out on making it into the College Football Playoff in 2024. Can Simmons actually follow up the incredible efforts of Jaxson Dart with an even more impressive showing?

Based on what his former Ole Miss teammates had to say recently, absolutely.

Austin Simmons, Ole Miss QB is Ready

When I was in Indianapolis for the NFL Combine last week I had the opportunity to speak with just about every Ole Miss Rebels player who was there and every last one of them couldn’t help but hype up Austin Simmons.

The first player I spoke with, and the one perhaps most confident in Simmons, was star quarterback Jaxson Dart. When one of my fellow media members asked a follow-up on Simmons, Dart had quite the zinger of a quote on him. Jaxson Dart saying that he “hasn’t really seen anybody like him” seems like lofty praise on the surface, but he isn’t exaggerating. We’ve never really seen a player like Austin Simmons before in the history of college football. Yes, there have been players who played both baseball and football. Yes, there have been players who have reclassified to get to college a bit earlier.

There has never been a player who graduated high school two years early with a GPA above a 4.0, who was recruited for both baseball and football at an elite level to the point where he could likely play professionally in either sport, then sat willingly and patiently behind a veteran quarterback during the NIL and Transfer Portal era for two years when passers all around the nation were leaving teams to go find earlier playing time.