Helmets on, folks! The SEC craze has picked up. While the legendary Eli Manning bets on Lane Kiffin’s dark horse, Jaxson Dart, to lead Ole Miss to glory, Texas Longhorns’ dynamo Quinn Ewers has just dropped a bomb. The potential impact of Ewers on Dart’s performance is a tantalizing prospect. As Manning’s kind words will likely boost Dart’s spirit, will Ewer’s threat dampen his motivation?

Amidst the brouhaha, Kiffin has successfully marked himself safe. But why? The Ole Miss head coach is busy doing some groundwork. He seeks to pave the way for the Rebels through SEC glory and make some master moves with a nontraditional blueprint.   

Eli Manning’s endorsement of Jaxson Dart

The Ole Miss quarterback just got lucky, as on June 29, Dart met Eli for the first time at the Manning Passing Academy. Kiffin’s star QB had time to meet the legend. The legendary QB could not stop praising Dart. He started with, “I’ve been to games, I’ve seen him briefly, but first time really getting to sit down with him…I was able to take some light-hearted digs at him, he reciprocated and did the same to me… Kind of makes it special for the group.” Other than being flattered by his personality, Manning seems convinced that Dart “seems like a great kid and got a good head on his shoulders and excited about his future.”

However, Manning’s appraisal may prove insufficient, as Dart must soon prove his talents in the gridiron. Longhorns’ Ewers has already raised a clarion call. In one of his interviews with On3 Sports, the Texas quarterback confidently claimed, “We’re going to be everybody’s biggest game, for sure.” While fans waited for reassurance from Kiffin, the head coach has been too busy to pay heed. 

Kiffin bolsters O-Line with new commits

On June 10, Ole Miss landed two offensive linemen commits within three days. One was a three-star offensive tackle, Taren Hedrick, and the other was a 6’8, 315-pound tackle, Kenneth Boston. But what prompted HC Kiffin to take action on the O-Line suddenly? Some believe it came from Jesse Simonton’s list of Top 10 offensive lines on May 10, where Ole Miss was ranked at the bottom. 

Meanwhile, Andy Staples’ analysis on the On3 podcast has been doing rounds in which Kiffin’s Ole Miss is believed to give a tough call to Texas. As the analyst painted a clearer picture of the chances in the SEC race, he stated, “Ole Miss has better odds to win the SEC than Alabama.”

With Ole Miss’s chances of reigning high and Eli Manning’s confidence in Dart, good times seem to roll for Lane Kiffin. He only has to take care of the decommitment spree, as the Rebels lost four prospects last week.