OU’s Venables Knows What He’s Facing with Ole Miss’ Dart

OXFORD, Miss. — It probably didn’t take Oklahoma coach Brent Venables long looking at Ole Miss game film to figure things out. Rebels’ quarterback Jaxson Dart kinda stands out that way.

“Everything goes through Jaxson Dart,” Venables said. “He’s the only active player in college football with 10,000 career passing yards and over 1,200 yards rushing. They’re really deep at receiver. Great backs. Veteran offensive line. I think 18 of 22 starters are transfer guys. A veteran football team that makes few mistakes.”

A lot of that is the normal coachspeak you hear from opposing coaches. In this case, though, there is a stark contrast between Ole Miss’ offense and the Sooners’ defense that gave up a ton of big plays in a 35-9 loss to South Carolina last week.

“He’s got a great compliment of players around him,” Venables said about Dart. “He’s in a really good system around him, decisive decision0-maker. He’s got a big arm, incredibly accurate. And he’s a threat. They do a lot in their ground game to put you in conflict. Dart can run through trash and he’s a really competitive guy that’s a winner.”

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the South Carolina Gamecocks at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

OU’s offense is, quite simply, a mess. In the loss to the Gamecocks and getting blown out by Texas in the Cotton Bowl, the Sooners’ offense would struggle to put up a touchdown if they played until Thursday.

“One of the most dominant defenses in all of college football this year,” Venables said about the Rebels’ defense. “They’ve only given up six total touchdowns on the season. They’ve done a good job of creating turnovers. In 11 home games since last year, they’ve played really well. They’ve outscored their opponents 73-0 off turnovers. They’re hard to run on, hard to pass against. Only two yards a carry on the season … they have the best defensive player in college football in Walter Nolen. He’s fantastic. Very disruptive, very well-coached, disciplined.”

The situation with Oklahoma is so bad, some fans are debating whether it’s a return to the John Blake days or even Howard Schnellenberger, going back about 30 years to a dark time in the Sooners’ past. They tend to panic pretty easily over there.

It wouldn’t be that surprising if Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin restricted how much he let his players look at OU the last two weeks. They’ve actually been that bad on the field with a freshman quarterback and confusion for most of Brent Venables’ two seasons.

The Rebels still have the playoffs on their mind. They’ll worry about the future teams when they come up, but for now the Sooners are coming up fast in the windshield. Kiffin’s already seen what happens when his team is not prepared.

To keep that playoff hope alive, they can’t afford another lapse.

Ole Miss and Oklahoma will kick off Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN. You can also listen to the game on The Ole Miss Radio Network.