Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart Electing To Play In Meaningless Gator Bowl Speaks To His Character

Jaxson Dart was supposed to lead Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff this season. The senior quarterback was supposed to will his team to a victory over a bad Kentucky team at home in Week 5, and he was expected to do the same in a do-or-die spot in The Swamp against Florida. Ultimately, the Rebels lost both of those games, another in Baton Rouge to LSU, and went from a favorite to make the Playoff to the team that gets to play in the Gator Bowl against Duke on Jan. 2.

‘Failure’ isn’t the right word to use when we’re talking about a sport played by 18-22-year-olds, even if some of them are making millions of dollars, but calling Ole Miss’ 2024 campaign a disappointment is certainly accurate, and more than fair.

The Rebels’ season ended the moment the clock struck zeros in Gainesville on Nov. 23 with the scoreboard reading Florida 24, Ole Miss 17. Sure, Ole Miss was scheduled to play Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl six days later and multiple levels of chaos may have increased the team’s Playoff chances, but ultimately, that Black Friday game was played for nothing more than in-state bragging rights and an opportunity to take a photo with The Golden Egg.

Dart and more than two dozen other Ole Miss seniors were honored on the field before kickoff against Mississippi State, the Rebels won 26-14 in an ugly football game, and the signal caller shed tears walking off of the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the last time.

Dart crying in Lane Kiffin’s arms seconds after playing his final game in Oxford was supposed to be it. That moment was supposed to be the final chapter and lasting image of Dart’s time as an Ole Miss Rebel. But as every player on that roster and every fan who followed this group of Rebels can attest, the 2024 season did not go as planned, and Dart opting in to play in a meaningless game against Duke continues that theme.

Jaxson Dart Has One More In Him

Nobody in their right mind would have blamed Jaxson Dart for opting out of the Gator Bowl if he had elected to do so. He will have his name called during the 2025 NFL Draft, therefore risking any sort of injury on top of his assuredly already banged-up body in a bowl game that means absolutely nothing would not only be looked at as a logical decision but likely the correct one as well.

Instead, Dart signaled on social media that he’d be under center for the Rebels in Jacksonville next month for his “last one” in an Ole Miss uniform.

We’re talking about a player in Dart who is from Utah who began his college career at USC, transferred from Los Angeles to small-town Oxford, Mississippi choosing to risk injury and potentially his professional future just to lead his Ole Miss team one final time.

Dart has taken heavy criticism throughout the year with Ole Miss missing out on the Playoff, but nobody can question his level of caring; the dude cares, immensely.

Many have questioned Kiffin’s approach to building his teams through the transfer portal since his arrival at Ole Miss, and while everyone is entitled to their opinion on that topic, there should be only one opinion about whether or not he’s been successful in building a culture in Oxford.