Ole Miss players dominate weekly honors after commanding win at Arkansas

Written on 11/04/2024
Caleb Salers

The No.16 Ole Miss football team kept playoff hopes alive on Saturday in a 63-31 bludgeoning at Arkansas and a few Rebels were handed weekly honors as a result of the stellar outing.

Coming in as the Associated Press’ national player of the week, the SEC’s co-offensive player of the week, and the Manning Award’s star of the week is senior quarterback Jaxson Dart, who threw for a career-high 515 yards on Saturday and tied Eli Manning and Matt Corral for most passing touchdowns in a game (6) to a shorthanded crew.

The Kaysville, Utah native became the second SEC player in history to have over 500 passing yards and six touchdowns in a game, joining former Missouri quarterback and current New York Giant Drew Lock. Ahead of the matchup against the Razorbacks, Dart had only tossed three touchdowns in conference play.

Joining Dart as the conference’s other co-offensive player of the week is Rebel wideout Jordan Watkins. The reliable pass catcher became his quarterback’s top target on Saturday with standout wide receiver Tre Harris and tight end Caden Prieskorn notably absent.

Watkins, with five scores against the Razorbacks, broke an Ole Miss receiving touchdown record Harris had claimed in his Rebel debut at the beginning of the 2024 season. Touchdowns aside, he amassed 254 receiving yards, a program-best, on eight receptions.

On the other side of the ball, where Ole Miss has shined all year, linebacker TJ Dottery was named the SEC’s co-defensive player of the week after notching five tackles, one of which was for a loss, and one sack fumble. The strip sack on Razorback quarterback Taylen Green was the initial scoring catalyst for the Rebels.

Rebel edge rusher Princely Umanmielen, who recovered the fumble to give Ole Miss an early lead, was named the conference’s defensive line player of the week. Umanmielen’s fumble recovery in the endzone marked the first touchdown of his career, and the first fumble recovered in the endzone for a touchdown by a Rebel defender since 2012. He was Ole Miss’ top pass rusher over the weekend with two sacks.

Ole Miss (7-2, 3-2 SEC) will continue the 2024 campaign with a must-win matchup versus No. 2 Georgia (7-1, 5-1 SEC) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ABC and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.