Lane Kiffin’s Sunday Presser: Rebels’ head coach talks defensive play, offensive woes, health of receivers, Quinshon, playcalling, and taking the blame for the loss to Alabama

OXFORD, Miss. — Last week, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin began having Sunday evening press conferences with media via Zoom in order to talk about the Saturday game after he had a chance to watch the film. The plan is to put that week’s game to bed Sunday so everyone can move on to the upcoming game.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin had to say about the Rebels’ 24-10 loss to Alabama Saturday.

Opening statement on the defense:

“Frustrated going in there to win and not getting the job done, especially being ahead at half…I thought our defense did some really good things. I thought we had a really good plan. He’s (Alabama QB Jalen Milroe) a unique runner, as good as anybody in the country that way. Having (linebacker Suntarine) Perkins and then (Ladarius) Tennison spy him I thought really worked out well. It was to keep the ball in front of us at the back end and make them drive the length of the field. Then they hit two big plays, which was just frustrating to re-watch. The second play of the second half, they take the big play action and the receiver runs a corner route and the quarterback throws it to the post. And, I commend the receiver for turning and running the other way and making an amazing play. Then his touchdown throw, we are in good shape but let the ball go right over us. I thought the kid played really tough. I commend him for that. But I thought we had a really good plan and two plays that which we really should have matched pretty easy end up kind of breaking it open there.”

On the offense and special teams: 

“Offense, I thought the story was third down…That was a big story of the game. That’s a lot of possessions there by not making third downs and giving them the ball back. And we lost on special teams. If you lose on the offensive side and special teams side in Tuscaloosa, you’re not going to win too many games.”

On upcoming game with LSU:

“We’re 3-1, have a great team (coming in) playing as well as anyone in the country with a phenomenal quarterback (Jayden Daniels), running and passing, and great weapons. So, obviously we have Georgia down the road, but when we talk about playing in the West, these are two teams in warmups last week and this week who look really different…you can see it on film already, these guys have elite, elite five-star talent and great players so we gotta get ready. This is a big one.”

Lane on how the offensive playcalling occurs on gameday: 

“You guys (media) don’t ask this question when we do well….We have a playcaller. I interject when I need be. But I let those guys do their job…and they know that. That’s part of the reason guys take the job or stay…they know they get to call the plays. I interject. We do all the stuff together during the week. Welcome to this profession. This is what happens when you have a rough game on offense — everybody wants to get rid of the playcaller. It is what it is.”

Health of Tre Harris, Zakhari Franklin and Caden Prieskorn

Lane offered a bit of news that had not yet officially been reported and that is wide receiver Tre Harris has undergone surgery after his injury two weeks ago against Tulane.

“I did not think (going into the Alabama game) Tre was playing at all….he’s actually recovering from surgery…Very limited what was done with him. But hopefully he will get back this week, another week removed from surgery and be able to actually play in a normal role.”

On Zakhari Franklin and Caden Prieskorn

“That was Zakhari’s first game playing. He did some good things in there, he’s a veteran that’s played a lot. Again, we played high tempo in his first game, so I expect him to improve. Prieskorn, same situation. He hadn’t played a play with us yet after a surgery. He pushed himself and did some good things. The good part is knowing those guys are all going to get better, that’s the good part going forward.”

On if he is unhappy with the tempo of the Rebel offense: 

“I don’t know that I would really say happy or unhappy with tempo. I’m unhappy with the production. So when you don’t make first downs, don’t make the third down, tempo doesn’t matter because you don’t have another play unless you go for it on fourth down. I don’t like the rhythm. That’s really because we’re not running the ball really efficiently and then you have a number of incompletions in that game. So we’re not throwing some fades, we’re not making any 50-50 plays in that game. So now you have some dead ball incompletions and those guys played their perimeter plays really well. No. 13 (Alabama DB Malachi Moore) is a very savvy player and now you don’t have a lot of rhythm. You’re not having a lot of four or five or six yard plays and that throws off the rhythm.”

Lane on if the team doesn’t appear to be running plays as fast:

“I don’t know that we don’t look fast. Supposedly we’re the third-fastest team. It doesn’t look fast when you don’t make first downs. Because of the receiver issues and depth issues at tight end and receiver, especially at receiver, we are not going quite as fast and you see some more substitutions. I would say we have slowed down since Tre went out after that first series of Tulane.”

Lane on why he tweeted after the game that the loss was on him and not the players: 

“I am the head coach. I think nowadays I get very concerned with social media about how much these players get attacked….and I get really concerned because they’re on their phones (and see all that)…all day long, sitting on the bus on the way back. I get very concerned… when things for some reason on social media, people tend to listen to them a lot more. When in reality, all they are is the same things when you’re walking out of a stadium that fans yell. When the fans yell, ‘you suck, you aint’ any good,’ all those things they yell, you don’t really pay attention to it. For some reason once it’s on a phone (on social media), kids start paying attention to it. I do get concerned with that. So that’s why I said something like that because I worry about players taking so many hits when we lose, about all these people that just chime in whatever they want, it’s easy to criticize. So i want to make sure I say, ‘hey, it’s on me as the head coach to do a better job.'”

Lane on Quinshon Judkins and how close he is to being 100 percent:

“I was actually just with Quinshon. I felt that was the best he’s ran (against Alabama). I felt the week before he was not healthy and just tried to push through. I felt that’s the best he’s looked this season, and excited about that moving forward. So hopefully we can get back to having the production like we did a year ago.”

Kiffin also talked about how tough it has been historically to run on Alabama’s defense.

“Those guys usually, in general, are hard to establish a consistent run game for a lot of years against. He (Quinshon) had some success a year ago..but it wasn’t until that 2:00 minute run broke…if you look at his stats prior to that, they were very average. That’s a tough team to have big running days on for a long period of time. It’s a hard place to go. We wanted to go in there and win the game, that’s what we expected to do….”

Coach Kiffin offered some parting words for Rebels.

Lane Kiffin

Next Up: 

Ole Miss and LSU will kick off September 30 at 5:00 p.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway.