CBS likes Ole Miss’ Dart and Umanmielen as SEC POTY candidates
CBS Sports has six preseason candidates for SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
Five are quarterbacks.
Third-year Ole Miss starter Jaxson Dart is one. Dart has the fourth-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy in 2024-25. Wide receiver Luther Burden, III, of Missouri rounds out the list.
Dart could be one of the Rebels’ double-digit NFL Draft selections this time next year. Dart is a one-time transfer from USC and threw for 3,364 yards and 23 touchdowns last season. He had just five interceptions and also rushed for 404 yards and eight touchdowns.
Dart’s started all but one game for Ole Miss over the previous two years. He’s led the Rebels to 19 total wins.
“The motivation is we want a national championship,” Dart told The Ole Miss Spirit last Friday at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
“That’s the way we see it day-in and day-out. It gets brought up on a daily basis.”
Pro Football Focus released in May its highest-graded returning SEC quarterbacks. Dart (91.2) came in at No. 2 behind only Carson Beck (91.5) of powerhouse Georgia.
Next year’s draft won’t be short of capable quarterbacks, among them Dart and Beck. Dart is the No. 88 overall prospect, according to PFF. Others include Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Shedeuer Sanders (Colorado).
Dart is fresh off steering Ole Miss to a program-record 11 wins. He threw for 379 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in the Rebels’ Peach Bowl win over Penn State.
“We truly believe we can (win it all) this year,” Dart said. “So, that’s the motivation.”
The CBS picks for SEC Defensive Player of the Year were more position-diverse.
However, defensive linemen were favored.
Princely Umanmielen has already been argued by PFF as ‘one of the best’ players in all of college football. CBS agrees, though it does also like James Pearce, Jr. (EDGE, Tennessee), Deone Walker (DL, Kentucky) and Trey Moore (EDGE, Texas).
CBS, back in April, forecasted Umanmielen as a Top 15 selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Umanmielen transferred to Ole Miss in the off-season following four seasons at Florida.
“I feel like here I’m getting coached harder for things like (attacking the run game),” Umanmielen said, in a sit-down with the Ole Miss Spirit’s ‘Ivey League’ podcast. “I feel like at Florida, the way I was coached, it was almost as if they were just telling me to go out there and use my talent. Here, they go real in-depth. I feel like I’m actually getting developed here.”
Pro Football Focus has Umanmielen pegged as the No. 7 returning EDGE in the country.
Umanmielen last season led the Gators in sacks (7.0) and tackles for loss (11.5). He was fourth among all Power 5 EDGEs in pass-rush win rate (22.2 percent). He had the second-most run-defense stops (42).
“In terms of how advanced he is as a pass rusher, he’s one of the best (players) in the country,” Max Chadwick said this week of Umanmielen on the PFF College Football Show.
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