Lane Kiffin discusses Ole Miss' 'very competitive' fight for starting QB

Lane Kiffin has a good problem at Ole Miss this spring. He needs to find a starting quarterback for the 2023 season, and at least according to his evaluations, he has himself three stellar players to choose from.

The Rebels will be returning last season's starter, Jaxson Dart, and there are two new additions to the room. The first is Spencer Sanders, who spent the past four seasons at Oklahoma State and was an All-Big 12 quarterback. The second, Walker Howard, a former four-star recruit who was at LSU last season but transferred to Ole Miss to fight for the starting quarterback job. Howard was ranked as the No. 5 quarterback in the 2022 recruiting class at a top-40 player nationally, per the 247Sports composite rating.

That's a ton of talent to sift through if you're Kiffin, but it sounds as if the head coach is taking it slow in his evaluations so far.

"I'm sure you have quarterback questions. All the guys practiced today and rotated in there. So, they all looked good," he told the media at the start of spring practice, per ESPN's Alex Scarborough. "I just see it being very competitive," he continued.

As the incumbent starter, one would think Dart has the advantage this spring, but don't count out Sanders. He has only one season left of eligibility, but he can do a lot of damage for the Rebels in that one season. He threw for 2,642 yards and 17 touchdowns with nine interceptions last season for Oklahoma State. He threw for over 2,000 yards in each of his four seasons with the Cowboys and has 67 career touchdowns to his name.

Dart is no slouch either, though. He threw for 2,974 yards and 20 touchdowns with 11 interceptions last season for Ole Miss.

"[To] have some time to recover, he's gotten stronger and has looked really good and much improved," Kiffin said of Dart. "So that's exciting."