Where Will Jaxson Dart Eventually Rank All-Time Among Ole Miss Rebels Quarterbacks?

When Jaxson Dart's Ole Miss career comes to an end, where will he stand in comparison to those who have come before him?

Ole Miss Rebels quarterback Jaxson Dart after winning the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl over the Penn State Nittany Lions in Dec. 2023. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

This season is a big one for the Ole Miss Rebels, but it is equally as big for the legacy of quarterback Jaxson Dart.

Ole Miss has been the home of many great quarterbacks in its football history: Jake Gibbs, Archie Manning, Eli Manning, Chad Kelly, Matt Corral...you get the picture. Each of these (and more) signal callers had his fair share of successes and failures, but where will Dart eventually rank among these names once his career with the Rebels comes to an end?

The rising senior already has etched his name into the history books for the Rebels as the quarterback who led the program to its most wins in a single season (11) in 2023. That was a special year in Oxford, capped off with a win in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and a finish in the AP Top 10.

But there's still one year left for this team under Dart's leadership, and the stakes are rather high this fall.

Ole Miss' 2024 roster has been compared to a "Ferrari" entering this summer. The Rebels return a ton of talent from that 11-win team last season, and they have brought in a flurry of big-time names from the transfer portal. Pair that with the fact that the College Football Playoff will now include 12 teams, and this is arguably the biggest season in Ole Miss football history.

One of the best rosters in school history aiming for a shot at an expanded playoff? A berth is certainly possible, but where would that put Jaxson Dart in the all-time ranking of Ole Miss quarterbacks?

He would certainly have a claim to the "GOAT" title. Sure, the speed limits on campus honor Archie and Eli, but if Dart led this team to the CFP (especially if the Rebels hosted a playoff game), he would have done something that no other Ole Miss quarterback has accomplished in the modern era: put the team in the running for a national championship.

You can argue over who the "most talented" quarterback is, but comparing across decades of college football is often a difficult exercise. What you can't argue, however, is that the game today is the same as it was in the 1960s. It's bigger, flashier, and holds a wider audience.

With all that considered, would a playoff berth make Dart the "greatest" quarterback in Ole Miss' history? He would certainly be in the conversation.

This is all putting the proverbial cart before the proverbial horse, however. There are still games to play, but since we are months away from said games, it's fun to speculate.

Of course, Ole Miss fans have been in this realm of speculation before. The 2009 season was preceded by a good deal of hype, and the Rebels even climbed to a No. 4 ranking nationally before finishing the year at 9-4. High expectations don't always equal high results, and some teams aren't built to shoulder that extra load.

But if...if...Dart and the Rebels are able to reach the CFP in 2024, it would certainly be time to revisit the quarterback debate at Ole Miss. And this slinger from Utah would be right in the middle of it.