OXFORD, Mississippi — Jaxson Dart threw two touchdown passes in the first nine minutes and finished with four as No. 5 Mississippi defeated Georgia Southern 52-13 on Saturday night.
The Rebels (4-0) built a 17-0 lead in the first quarter, highlighted by Dart’s 31-yard touchdown passes to Juice Wells and 23-yards to Jordan Watkins. Dart completed 22 of 31 passes for 382 yards as Ole Miss took a 24-7 halftime lead and never faced any challenges.
Tre Harris caught 11 passes for 225 yards, including touchdowns of 70 and 36 yards.
“He’s a workhorse and has the right attitude,” Dart said. “Tre makes it easy for me and we have other weapons that fit with him. The offensive line makes everything possible.”
Henry Parrish, JJ Pegues and Domonique Thomas ran for touchdowns. Ole Miss totaled 607 yards of offense, but was hampered by 11 penalties for 133 yards.
“Our players had a lot of energy and it was obvious,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said. “We may not have played smart the whole time and we had 11 penalties, but with the exception of one shot, Jaxson was solid. Tre was electric. He was great today.”
Georgia Southern (2-2) scored a touchdown with a 12-yard pass from running back OJ Anderson to Derwin Burgess and field goals of 42 and 33 yards by Gavin Stewart. JC French threw 20 of 28 passes for 109 yards, and the Eagles totaled 194 yards.
“We played against a great football team and did some good things, but not enough,” Georgia Southern coach Clay Helton said. “We had a challenging non-conference schedule and are confident we’ll be ready to play next week when conference play begins.”
Georgia Southern: The road setback against a strong Southeastern Conference opponent is unlikely to stop the Eagles from making a third consecutive bowl appearance and winning the Sun Belt Conference title.
Mississippi: If the Rebels had personnel or performance issues in August, they were erased by four clear nonconference wins by a score of 240-22. As a team, Ole Miss passed the eye test. Individually, the stylish Dart has built the statistical resume for Heisman Trophy consideration. The remaining questions will be answered when the SEC schedule begins next week.
Kiffin and Helton are both former head coaches at Southern California. Kiffin led the Trojans from 2010 to 2013. He hired Helton as quarterbacks coach in 2010 and promoted him to offensive coordinator in 2013.
Helton took over as head coach in 2015 and was fired in 2021. Both coaches spent much of the week praising each other in pregame press conferences.
Another easy win over an out-of-conference opponent won’t do much for the Rebels. Six of the top seven teams in the AP Top 25 are SEC schools.
Georgia Southern: Sun Belt play begins next Saturday with a visit to Georgia State.
Mississippi: Hosts Kentucky next Saturday for the SEC opener. “We noticed that Kentucky was one play away from beating Georgia,” Kiffin said.
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