I know this isn’t going to go over too well within the Ole Miss fanbase, but Rebel fans need to temper their expectations significantly for new quarterback Austin Simmons.
I think he’s going to be decent this year, but not as good as some fans think he will be. Does he have a stronger arm than Dart did? Absolutely, no question about it. The thing is, the kid is only 19. Side note: it feels weird calling someone a kid when I’m only 20.
Ole Miss fans have put way too much stock in a single drive that Simmons had against Georgia. He and Dart are two entirely different players and Georgia was not ready for a quarterback with Simmons’ talent.
I’m not all doom and gloom about Simmons, in fact, I’m all aboard the hype train. I think he has the potential to be one of the best quarterbacks Ole Miss has seen from a talent perspective. He has all the talent in the world, he is just so very young.
To put this into perspective, if he stays all five years, he will be 21-22 when he enters the draft. While I am willing to bet money he won;t declare after this year, he technically can. Overall, I want people to temper their expectations for Simmons. The kid is wildly smart and extremely talented, but he is just young and inexperienced.
If he does well for the first few weeks, I will be rubbing it in everyone’s face that the Rebels have another one. Also I know it’s baseball season but I just wanted to say this because I’ve been seeing a lot lately.