Jonathan Mingo's record-breaking day was a long time coming

Elijah Moore, now of the New York Jets following his All-American Rebels career, had the school single-game yardage mark with 238 against Vanderbilt in 2020. Had is the operative word, as Mingo surpassed it late in Ole Miss’ 52-28 win over the Commodores on Saturday. The Brandon native ended his day with 247 yards and two touchdowns. The 247 yards is an FBS-high this season.

“Elijah texted me during the game, wanted me to try to tell Coach Kiffin to throw me another ball so I could break the record.

Mingo — who has eight receptions of 25 yards or more this year — got the record on the Rebels’ last drive of the game, a 9-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Jaxson Dart that broke the tie.

“Yeah, absolutely (we knew). That last drive, every play, we had an RPO tag just to try to get him another catch, but they were trying to take that away,” Dart said with a smile. “So, it was good to finally be able to get it to him in the red zone and for him to break it.”

Breaking the single-game record wasn’t what was on Mingo’s mind for most of Saturday. What stuck out to him was where he was a year ago compared to now. It was just about a year ago that Mingo suffered a foot injury that cost him seven games and required a pair of surgeries. His effort against Vanderbilt put him in a far different mental space than he was in at this time last season.

Mingo said his phone gave him reminders of where he was a year ago.

“I had surgery last year around this time in October. I had it again in April to make sure everything would be straight during the season. So, it’s a blessing out there in the field. I don’t take (any) day for granted.”

No playoff talk yet

The Rebels are undefeated, are in the top-10 and aren’t too far away from finding themselves in the College Football Playoff conversation. Head coach Lane Kiffin wasn’t having any of that talk Saturday.

“I mean, I’m thinking we should have played a lot better. So, I’m certainly not thinking of (the) national championship. I mean, you and I watched that first half. So, we (aren’t) worried about that. We have a long ways to go to improve.”

Key Number: 45

Ole Miss had a season-low 45 rushing yards in the first half.

Next Game

The Rebels host Auburn on Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN.

Quotable

“I just thought it was a great motivational speech by the head coach, you know, did a really good job. (Laughs) No, they did what they were supposed to do at the beginning. We stopped them on defense, took advantage of a lateral. I think we went 28, 21-0 fast. So, that was good to see. … Like we say every game, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Last time we were on the road, we were handing the ball off like 63 times or something. And then today, we throw for 448. So, you just never know what’s going to happen.” — Lane Kiffin, on the Rebels’ third-quarter explosion.

Rebel Ramblings

Ole Miss is now 53-40-2 all-time against Vanderbilt and 8-2 in the last 10 … Senior cornerback Deantre Prince broke up four passes … Kiffin has never lost to Vanderbilt (3-0 at Ole Miss, 1-0 at Tennessee) … Dart’s 448 passing yards are the most since Matt Corral threw for 513 in 2020 versus South Carolina.