The choice was clear at QB for Ole Miss football, Lane Kiffin. There's still much to learn.

OXFORD — If it wasn't already clear when Jaxson Dart took just about every first-team rep this spring for Ole Miss football ‒ or after he dominated first-team snaps again in August ‒ it became obvious once he threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns in 2.5 quarters in the season opener against Mercer.

Dart was Ole Miss' starting quarterback in everything but title. All that remained was for his head coach to say the magic words. And Lane Kiffin obliged during his media availability Monday.

"He had a really good camp and spring, and so he's the starting quarterback," Kiffin said.

Spencer Sanders, brought in via the transfer portal from Oklahoma State with one season of eligibility left, did not practice poorly this offseason or play badly against Mercer. In fact, it's easy to argue that he was dealt a bad hand. An injury put him on a pitch count in the spring, and he took the vast majority of his snaps in preseason action with a second-team unit that often made characteristic second-team mistakes to let him down.

Sanders took charge of three drives against Mercer in the second half of a 73-7 blowout and scored on two of them, going 8-for-14 through the air for 134 yards. It was a positive showing.

But Dart's was better. Dart looked crisp, composed and commanding on his way to an 18-for-23 performance that put the Rebels up 52-7 by the time he made way for Sanders.

That matches the offseason-long pattern Ole Miss' quarterback competition took on. Kiffin, unlike many coaches across college football, made this decision from a position of strength, choosing between two quarterbacks who could be weapons rather than picking the one who would hurt his team the least.

"My focus this year is the be one of the best quarterbacks in the country," Dart said postgame Saturday. "That's with all due respect to everybody else in the room, but that's just my mindset and what I want to accomplish this year."

Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? No.

Sanders, if selected, would have provided the steady hand of a veteran quarterback with four seasons' worth of valuable knowledge and experience. Dart provides the upside of a quarterback who is still growing – a fact that often seems to get lost on some observers.

So, with the headlines and hand-wringing that accompany a QB competition now seemingly behind us, there's a new question to answer: How good can Dart be?

At worst, Dart offered Ole Miss serviceable quarterback play last season, completing 62.4% of his passes for 2,974 yards, 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also rushed for 614 yards and an additional TD.

It's easy to forget those numbers came in his true sophomore campaign, and his first season in Kiffin's offense after transferring from USC.

Under normal circumstances, Dart's potential growth would have been Ole Miss' primary offseason storyline. Instead, those column inches were devoted to wondering whether he would start at all.

"I think people may underestimate having a year in the system, knowing the plays, being very comfortable in the things that we're operating," offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. said. "Knowing the timing of the footwork, to the drops. I think as he's grown more confident in his play, he's also allowed himself to become a more vocal leader, take some ownership on the team."

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In other words: The Jaxson Dart you got last year might not be the Jaxson Dart you get this year. And a road game at defending Cotton Bowl champion Tulane (1-0) on Saturday (2:30 p.m., ESPN2) offers an early opportunity for Dart to illustrate that.

Ole Miss' starting quarterback is no longer a mystery. But there's still plenty to find out.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Why QB Jaxson Dart is right choice for Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss football