Rebels have a record breaking day blowing out Mercer

There’s a reason Vegas sportsbooks didn’t have a spread on the Ole Miss-Mercer game, and Lane Kiffin’s squad left no doubt in a 73-7 blowout win to open the season.

The 73 points were the most a Kiffin-led squad had scored in his tenure and the most since 2018 when Ole Miss dropped more than 70 against two teams that season. The Rebels led 38-7 at halftime and never looked back from there scoring 28 more in the third quarter before capping things off with its third string offense in the fourth quarter with its final touchdown.

Wide receiver Tre Harris set a single game record with four receiving touchdowns for the first time in program history. Harris notched six receptions for 133 yards in his first game at Ole Miss after transferring from Louisiana Tech. The Lafayette, La. native had received quite a bit of buzz in fall camp, and clearly he made a statement on Saturday. The Cup may just call him Quatro Harris from here on out though.

There’s just a lot of ridiculous stat lines in this game. Jaxson Dart goes 18 of 23 passing for 334 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 36 more yards. Backup QB Spencer Sanders passed for two touchdowns of his own on 8 of 14 passing. The Rebels piled up 667 yards of total offense with less than 25 minutes of total possession in the game.

Freshman linebacker Suntarine Perkins led the defense in tackles in his first game in red and blue. Mercer managed only 235 yards of offense, and 75 of those yards came from one play - a rushing touchdown on its first possession by QB Carter Peevy.

There’s not much that can be taken away from a game like this. It’s expected for Ole Miss to beat Mercer by five or more touchdowns and get the second/third string some reps, and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday.

The Rebels are now 1-0, and undoubtedly a lot of Ole Miss fans will be tuning in to see how its next opponent, Tulane, fares against South Alabama on Saturday night. Cheers!