TRANSCRIPT: Coach Kiffin, Jaxson Dart, Jordan Watkins and Trey Washington on the 48-23 win over Georgia Tech

OXFORD, Miss. — No. 17 Ole Miss defeated Georgia Tech, 48-23, Saturday night at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The gritty Rebels, who led 10-3 at the half, poured it on in the second half, adding 38 points to move to 3-0 on the season.

Here’s what head coach Lane Kiffin, quarterback Jaxson Dart, safety Trey Washington and wide receiver Jordan Watkins had to say after the game.

Head coach Lane Kiffin

Opening Statement:
“Good to get to 3-0. It wasn’t pretty at times, but again this is what happens in games. Everything can’t go our way like the first game of the year did. Those guys had a good plan I thought, offensively. They did some good things and I think they were leading the ACC in offense coming in. They’ve got the quarterback (Haynes King) playing a lot better than he used to and doing a good job. I thought Jaxson did some really special things today running the ball, making people miss, running physical. It was good to hit a couple explosive plays late in the passing game. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, I can’t predict exactly what’s gonna happen with the running and passing and the yardage. You know we ran the ball really well in the first half, and they were playing deeper and we weren’t throwing the ball really well so we called more runs, that’s kinda what you’re supposed to do when you coach. I was proud of how it ended up, with us winning the fourth quarter again and winning the second half. Coming out 14-0 right off the bat and then finishing 21-7 or something like that, that was good to see. We’ve got a lot of work to do, I don’t think we’re very pleased how we played defense, even though the points were decent. Early in the game had a lot of yardage, a lot of missed tackles, so we have a lot of work to do there.”

On Jaxson Dart’s rushing performance:
“Some of that was last year, we ran the ball really well, running backs and quarterbacks a year ago against them. A lot of the same scheme with the same defensive coordinator, that was part of it. Obviously you don’t know that the long run’s gonna break like it did. We’ve been struggling a bit in short yardages, just wanted to make sure we got outside of everything and picked some up. He did a really good job, gotta pick up the flack. Top receiver is down, he’s got eight catches for five touchdowns, top tight end is down, and your running back isn’t one hundred percent. I commend the running back for playing. He didn’t practice very much this week at all, but he played physical out there and tried to help his team win.”

On what he’s seen regarding second half adjustments:
“I don’t have the numbers in front of me. Coming into the game, the second half was extremely lopsided how we had played and we did it again. Gotta be up there in second half and fourth quarter scoring margin in the entire country. I can be one of those coaches that takes all the credit and say it was a halftime speech I keep giving. I just think it’s the players continuing to execute and making the plays better and doing better in situations.”

On areas the team needs to work on the most:
“Like I said, I didn’t think we tackled very well. We didn’t rush the passer as well as I thought we would. I thought our matchups coming in up front would’ve made it harder on the quarterback. Those guys coach too and they did a very good job. I think they were very well coached on offense this year and they’re doing good things. We seem to not, until the end there, not have a very good passing game with Tre out. Prieskorn being out this whole time, he was a major staple of our offense coming into this season, so Jaxson’s kinda stepping up.”

On the time of possession compared to the defensive performance:
“Two things on that. One, we play fast, so we’re probably never gonna win the time of possession, I don’t know if we’ve ever won it. They won it today in forty minutes to twenty minutes and we won 48-23. That is the most irrelevant stat to winning football if you want analytics. That’s an old school way of thinking. Really you just take longer standing there between snaps, why does that mean you’re gonna be better. The problem is not getting off on third down. They go 11-20 on third down so they keep going, that’s where the problem comes and you get stuck out there for a lot of plays. We had some explosive plays, and then that’s how you end up getting a lopsided 89 to 56 play count in the game.”

On pros and cons of the defensive rotation:
“We’re trying to play a lot of players. Again, high play count by not getting off on third down. You get off on every third down, you won’t play as many players because you’re not getting tired. We got a brand new system and we’re gonna rotate guys in and figure out who are the best players.”

On seeing his belief in the run game pay off:
“We just do what it takes to win. There’s probably a lot of things we don’t do well. I think one is, offensively, of adjusting and whatever. We’re just not gonna run the ball all the time or throw the ball all the time. We’re gonna figure out what they’re doing. We have a lot of plays and RPOs and things that are based off of what they do. Today, had 19 pass attempts and 37 carries. Gotta do what it takes to win and sometimes you don’t know until you come out there and they start playing some double cloud coverage, you know it’s hard to throw.”

On what he hopes going into conference play next week:
“Only thing you can be is 3-0. Can’t be 4-0 after three games. I commend our players for that. We got new coaches, we got tons of new players out there. We’ve got some significant major impact injuries on offense. I commend them for getting to 3-0. I kind of would’ve thought it would take some time to get going so you want to survive and win these games and continue to get better as these parts come together, especially like I said, defensively. You got a ton of new players out there trying to play together and a brand new system.”

On if he’s seen anything from a rotational defensive player:
“Yeah he’s (Akelo Stone) done a good job pass rushing when he got in there. I like when Tennisson goes in there, he adds some speed in there even though we kinda play him at linebacker even though he’s a little undersized. Really like how hard he hits, how hard he runs. We’ve gotta find a way to get him to master more and more. It’s hard on defense to get guys to play outside backer and off backers, that’s a lot to do in college football.”

On his assessment of the offensive line:
“I thought today was obviously much better than last week. Here it says only four negative yards, only one by a running back. I look at that really quick to see if we have negative runs. If you have negative runs that usually means you’re getting beat up front. They did a much better job today. They practiced better this week, so it was good to see. We’ve gotta get rid of the holdings, cause that’s what sets us back and lost us some points.”

On Alabama’s quarterback situation:
“It’s good to know that Bryce (Young) won’t be there, that’s very positive. We all have our issues and this is one of the best teams, the best team in the last 15 years and one of the hardest places to play. Just because Texas went in there and won, doesn’t mean it got any easier. It’s a huge challenge, a dynasty, and we have to do a lot of work just to be on the field with those guys, his premier recruiting class of five star players everywhere.

On the decision to start Quinshon Judkins:
“I commend him a lot. We never addressed what injury it is, but to be extremely injured and not able to practice very much and come out and play. I didn’t think a lot of times this week he was going to play at all. Then he came out and got to do some warmups and said he was ready to go. So, we played him not quite as much as we normally would with a week off of practice, but he battled in there.”

Quarterback Jaxson Dart

On his physicality:
“Going into the game I did not think I was going to run as much as I did. After the first few drives I talked to Coach Weiss and Coach Gilbert and they told me it was just going to be that kind of game. I love that part of football. My dad raised me to be a football player before a quarterback and I have always loved the physicality of the game.”

On not having key players available:
“I saw a lot of media about an upset tonight and I think that we challenged our guys to step up tonight. We have a lot of great players and a lot of depth. Tre Harris is great, he’s one of those athletes that has a lot of abilities that you can’t teach and he has done great things but we have a lot of great receivers that can make big plays which showed at the end of tonight.”

On the excitement to play Alabama:
“This is a game that our whole team is looking forward to. Especially with how things ended the last time we played them. Obviously, they are Alabama and you know what to expect from them. All of us as kids have seen Alabama at the top and we are really excited for the challenge next week.”

Safety Trey Washington

On defense getting off the field in the first half:
“The calls were great by our coaches but we had to do a better job of executing and not panicking. The third down is the money down and we just had to do a better job not panicking and just executing the play.”

On the message at halftime:
“Do not panic. I love this group because there is no panic. Adversity hits and there is no hesitation. As a team we are just ready to go and compete.”

On the importance of the defense executing:
“We show a lot of promise but we have to capitalize on our promises. Heading into SEC play next week we have to execute because the conference games are just getting started. We can talk through the plays and everything but at the end of the day it’s about just doing it.”

Wide receiver Jordan Watkins

On his second 100-yard receiving day:
“I started slow, dropped that one pass, but after that I was just floating with the game. I came up whenever my number was called and I made plays and that’s all it is. Jaxson trusted me to put the ball in the air whenever we needed big plays and he did that and we were able to execute.”

On the offensive potential:
“I think we have shown flashes of what we can be but I don’t think we have reached our full potential yet. We have the SEC gauntlet coming next week and I think we’re going to have to be on top of our game throughout the stretch of really tough games. Overall, I don’t think the offense has gotten there yet but we’ve shown flashes of it for sure.”

On what the offense needs to do to be more consistent:
“I think it is an execution thing. We have to lock into the details a bit more and execute a lot better. We have to play Ole Miss football. Our offense is known to be very explosive and powerful and we just have to get to that point.”