Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons dazzles in Missouri debut, throwing 4 TD passes in a 54-14 rout

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Austin Simmons did everything that was asked of him by Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss.

He was so far ahead in high school that he jumped two full recruiting classe s. He swung his commitment from Florida to its SEC rival, won the Rebels' starting quarterback job and played well through their first two games.

Simmons did everything asked of him after he got hurt, too.

Trinidad Chambliss took over as the starter while Simmons was out and never let go of the job, relegating Simmons to a backup role for the rest of the season. But even when it became clear Simmons would play elsewhere this year — and after he had made his commitment to Missouri — the 20-year-old stayed with Ole Miss through its College Football Playoff run.

On Thursday night, Simmons shined in his debut with the Tigers.

He completed his first nine throws, including a 25-yard TD strike to Shaun Terry II, finishing 17 of 19 passing with 252 yards and four touchdowns in a 54-14 romp over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. And he did it all while playing less than a half, as the Tigers went with backups over the final 30 minutes to preserve their health for a matchup with bitter rival Kansas next weekend.

“I'm not really able to compare,” Simmons said afterward, when asked to reflect on his debut as a freshman two years ago with Ole Miss and his first start for Missouri. “I think those events that happened at my last school have led me to have success here in my first game. I'm going to think about how well this team did as a unit, the offensive side and the defensive side.”

There was at least one thing in common: Cayden Lee.

The first time Simmons stepped on the field as the backup to Jaxson Dart at Ole Miss, he hit Lee for a 35-yard touchdown. When Kiffin left to take the head coaching job at LSU, Lee opted to follow his quarterback — not his coach — and transferred to Missouri, where he hauled in one of Simmons' touchdown throws on Thursday night.

“I had some jitters pregame and I was a little nervous, thinking about how things were going to go,” Simmons admitted. “It was a long season last year, and a long offseason up to this point. So yeah, a lot of nerves hit me pregame.”

You wouldn't have known it.

On a sweltering night at Faurot Field, where Missouri unveiled a $250 million renovation, the left-handed quarterback was nearly perfect. He hit Donovan Olugbode eight times for 116 yards and two scores and was efficient running the offense of new coordinator Chip Lindsey, who took over when Kirby Moore was hired as the head coach at Washington State.

There were a few miscues, including a bad sack, but Simmons bounced back.

“The big throw to Donovan across the middle, Jamal (Roberts) picks up a blitz that was coming free, and that's really the reason the play was successful,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “The protection held up well. He was never in danger of getting hit. He could work his reads. It wasn't perfect. There were three or four plays that could have been executed better. But he did have a good start.”

Drinkwitz was wise to view the performance through the lens of the opposition. Arkansas-Pine Bluff is a middling program from the Football Championship Subdivision, and the Golden Lions were thoroughly outclassed by a perennial bowl team from the SEC.

Simmons will have plenty of opportunities to prove how good he is this season.

The road gets tougher in a hurry as Missouri crosses the state line to play Kansas, which remains the Tigers' biggest rival even after they left the Big 12 well over a decade ago. And the conference schedule is arguably the toughest in the country with five teams — Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Oklahoma — ranked among the top 10 in the AP Top 25.

It was good to get the first one out of the way, and even better to play so well.

“Honestly, I really didn't think about how everything was going to go down,” Simmons said. “I just played ball at the end of the day.”

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here , visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here