"Freaking cold-blooded, man": Jaxson Dart's stealthy play from Lane Kiffin's book leaves Jon Gruden awestruck

Ahead of the 2025 NFL draft, Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart drew praise from Super Bowl-winning head coach Jon Gruden, who invited him on his show "QB Class" on Wednesday.

Gruden was highly impressed by one of the plays Dart implemented on the field against Texas A&M in 2023. In the play, Dart rocks back after receiving the ball from center and immediately throws the ball to the right side of the field to a wide out who was surprisingly not covered by anyone. This resulted in an easy touchdown pass for the Rebels.

Gruden asked Dart to share the details of the play on his podcast. It was a smart play which involved coach Lane Kiffin & Co. staging a substitution, duping Aggies' defense of an unmanned wideout in Jordan Watkins.

“So we installed this — we called it Sleeper," Dart said. "So we kind of just drew it up as like a two-play sequence. You know, you want to get two calls in and then go as fast as you can. We had a good explosive play — we called slot right. And we told Jordan Watkins, who’s our savvy, smart receiver, to kind of play it off.

"Once we got the explosive play, we said, ‘Okay, we want you to run and go talk to Coach Kiffin.’ So Coach Kiffin has his playbook in front of his face, and Jordan Watkins looks like he’s subbing out of the game — you know, talking to Coach Kiffin. And then, when the ball is snapped, he’s going to get a little signal to go. And they thought he was subbing out — so there’s nobody there.”

Gruden couldn’t contain himself:

“That is freaking cold-blooded, man.”

Dart just grinned:

“Yeah.”

“Is that legal?” Gruden asked.

Dart laughed, “Yeah. I mean, it worked.”

Jaxson Dart NFL draft projection

Jaxson Dart is seen as the third-best quarterback in this year's draft class following his impressive season for the Rebels, where he threw for 4,279 yards, 29 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Dart is expected to get drafted after the first two quarterbacks, Miami Hurricanes star Cam Ward and Colorado Buffaloes standout Shedeur Sanders, are off the board.

The most optimistic Dart projection is him going at No. 21 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, in case it doesn't happen, Dart will surely get picked in the second round.