Ole Miss’ Lee on Quarterback Using Loss to Motivate

OXFORD, Miss. — No player with the media looked more shocked than Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart after the 20-17 loss to Kentucky on Saturday. He looked stunned a little later.

It apparently translated to action. He got the offense together less than 24 hours later, according to starting sophomore wide receiver Cayden Lee after practice Tuesday.

“We had an offensive meeting Sunday morning following that,” Lee said. “Kind of talked things over, how we felt things went negative, what we could have (done) better. Just more (of) how we’re going to do things going forward and what we can do different because we don’t want that result to ever happen again.”

It may have been the wake up call the Rebels needed. That was my first thought after the game. Lane Kiffin had been talking for weeks about how they couldn’t afford the penalties and little mistakes that would become magnified against better opponents.

The players found that out Saturday. If they didn’t we may not see them on the field much the rest of the way.

“There’s a lot of things we need to improve on,” Dart said after the loss to the Wildcats. “We got a lot more opportunities, so just going to continue. This is going to be a wake-up call and it’s going to be a season-defining game for us. How we answer that, we’ll have to do with the direction of how the season goes, so we got to buck up.”

The loss knocked the Rebels down to No. 12 in the polls from the Top 10 they had been in since the beginning of the season. It didn’t knock them out of the playoffs, though. All they have to do is win games and that will resolve itself.

Ole Miss will have another challenge Saturday on the road against South Carolina at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN. The game will also be carried on the Ole Miss Radio Network statewide.