Ole Miss OC Charlie Weis, Jr. has seen constant improvement from Jaxson Dart

What some fail to recognize with the relationship between Ole Miss offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Charlie Weis, Jr. and third-year starting quarterback Jaxson Dart is they have both been Rebels the same amount of time.

Both are entering their third year as Rebels and working together and both have shown substantial growth during that tenure.

Dart has obviously improved under Weis’ tutelage, and you can only assume Weis has improved having had the benefit of working with someone as prolific as Dart, one of the front-runners for the Heisman Trophy this year.

Entering Dart’s senior campaign, what does Weis see that the talented signal-caller can improve on? Last season, you will recall, Weis (and Lane Kiffin ) asked Dart to take care of the ball better than he did in 2022.

So Dart goes from 11 interceptions thrown to five. Cutting your turnovers by more than half is certainly taking care of the ball better.

Now what?

“From the day Jaxson got her until now I feel like there have been jumps and improvements,” said Weis. “Last year, he really worked hard on his footwork, timing and rhythm of the passing game.

“Now, he’s getting to that next level of understanding defenses, cover recognition, making checks and getting the offense into different things based on the looks he sees. I think he’s done a tremendous job with that.”

Weis said Dart always had some leeway to check plays at the line of scrimmage, but now he thinks Jaxson is ready for more responsibility in checking plays at the line of scrimmage.

“He’s always been able to check to some things, but we are going to expand that this year due to the experience and knowledge he has of the offense,” Weis noted. “It’s just the natural growth of a quarterback.

“He can now see the whole picture and he’s become very calm and focused in a tempo offense. That’s a huge step in the right direction of being the complete quarterback.”

Jaxson’s only issue, if you want to call it that, is him running with abandon and with no concern of injury. Initiating contact seems to be something in his DNA.

“We need to manage that this season. His value is so tremendous,” said Weis. “You have to pick your times to run your quarterback. It’s something we have in our system, but we have to make sure we take care of Jaxson and keep him healthy for the whole season.”

Dart will ascend the record books this year as well.

Right now, he is fifth all-time in passing yards with 6,338 at Ole Miss. If you count his one year at Southern Cal, he is fourth all-time with 7,691 yards through the air.

(For the record, all stats in the record Ole Miss record book will be what he accomplished at Ole Miss and will not include his USC production.)

Taking the 6,338 yards passing he already has thrown for, he will need 3,782 passing yards this season to eclipse Eli Manning’ school record of 10,119 yards passing.

That would be roughly 425 yards more than he has passed for in his high-water mark of 3,364 in 2023, but there is a distinct possibility Dart could play in several more games when the Rebels make the college football playoffs.

He would “only” need 3,197 yards through the air to end up second all-time behind Manning and one yard ahead of Bo Wallace, who tallied 9,534 passing yards in his Rebel career.

The deadly combination of Jaxson Dart and Charlie Weis Jr/Lane Kiffin should be even more deadly in 2024.

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