3 takeaways from Spencer Sanders commitment to Ole Miss football

Ole Miss football has added another quarterback from the transfer portal in Spencer Sanders and here is what the move means for the Rebels. 

It’s been a busy couple of days in the transfer portal for Ole Miss football as the Rebels added former top-50 quarterback Walker Howard on Wednesday, then followed it up with the addition of former Oklahoma State starter Spencer Sanders on Thursday.

There was talk of Sanders joining Ole Miss football for weeks now, but the commitment of Walker Howard seemed to put an end to that notion. It’s clear that was just an assumption and the wrong one since Sanders committed on Friday.

Here are three takeaways on what the move means for the Rebels

It doesn’t get more experienced than Spencer Sanders

Ole Miss football had some talent in the quarterback room prior to the addition of Sanders with Jaxson Dart, who started 13 games for the Rebels in 2022 and led them to an 8-5 record. He threw 11 interceptions and it’s clear that Ole Miss has wanted an upgrade or at least competition.

It was thought that Walker would provide that, but maybe Walker is more of a long-term option. Sanders has one year left and after attempting 1,254 passes and throwing for 9, 953 yards and 67 touchdown passes his experience isn’t a question. He’s a know quantity. He’s also thrown 40 interceptions in his career and after completing better than 62 percent of his throws in his first three seasons, he completed 57.8 this year.

Still, Sanders has won a lot of games and led Oklahoma State to the Big 12 title game in 2021. He might not be an upgrade, but he’ll add depth and experience that the Rebels didn’t have beyond Dart.

Sanders will win the starting job

Sanders said he wasn’t afraid of the competition after his commitment to Ole Miss football and it’s clear that he’s not, otherwise, he wouldn’t have made the decision that he did.

Spring ball is going to be huge in terms of this quarterback battle and it will be interesting to see how Lane Kiffin handles it.

Yet, I think that it’s going to be tough to beat out Sanders who is the most proven quarterback in the room. Dart seemed to lose confidence down the stretch as the Rebels finished 1-5 and if Ole Miss was all that confident in him, they wouldn’t be adding two transfer quarterbacks.

Ole Miss won’t take all three quarterbacks to fall camp

With the way college football works anymore, I’d be surprised if all three quarterbacks were still on the roster going into the fall.

If it looks like Sanders is going to be the starter after fall camp, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Dart entered his name in the transfer portal again.

Since he transferred after Clay Helton was fired, Dart should be able to transfer a second time without having to sit out a year. He might need a waiver and heck, he could wind up winning the job, but I don’t see three starting-caliber quarterbacks sticking around for fall camp.