TRANSCRIPT: Lane Kiffin talks Mercer, QBs, defense and looks ahead to a tough Tulane team

OXFORD, Miss. – (Release) Ole Miss head football coach Lane Kiffin met with the media Monday to recap the 73-7 opening victory over Mercer and to preview the Rebels’ first road trip of the season this week at Tulane. Kickoff is set in New Orleans for 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2. A transcript can be found below.

Opening Statement
“Anytime that you win a game 73-7, a lot of things have to go right. Like I said afterwards, I feel like our guys played with really good energy and execution, that was great to see. Like I said, first game of the season, it’s kind of like an expansion team, there’s so many new players. That was impressive to see though. There’s a lot of things that go into football about execution and substitutions and communication when you’ve got new players and new coaches, I was very pleased with that. Got a big challenge this week, going to play a top-25 team, Cotton Bowl champs. They ask about a nine-game SEC schedule, so this is really a test of a nine-game SEC schedule because this is an SEC football team with that type of talent. They were able to beat the Heisman Trophy winner a few games ago. Going on the road, that’s always challenging, especially with a new team. We’ll have our hands full, so we’ll have to perform really well and practice really well this week.”

On Bralon Brown only suiting up for the second half:
“I think you missed that on him not dressing out, that’s not the case. He did a good job, made some good plays on special teams and made a good catch on a seam route. Really good job by him.”

On facing Tulane QB Michael Pratt two years ago:
“Every year is different for every team, and two years ago certainly means nothing. Two years ago they were 2-10. I thought they were going to have a really good season. They took Oklahoma, if you remember, right before us down to the last series, had the ball going down to beat Oklahoma. Much different team now that’s had a lot of success after last year’s 12 wins. Played at a really high level, and the quarterback basically played as well as you can on air last week, only threw one incompletion. He’s a very savvy veteran. Sharp, accurate, really good player.”

On naming Jaxson Dart the lone starter this week:
“Jaxson played really well. Like I said, he had a really good camp and spring, so he’s the starting quarterback. Like I’ve said all along, we’re extremely excited about that room, that depth in the room. Walker (Howard) came in last week, played really well, made some really good throws too. I always say, in the team each position group is a team within itself, and our goal each year is to improve that in the offseason. That position has been dramatically improved, like you saw the play from all three guys that went in.”

On his approach to watching film from a blowout:
“Well, it doesn’t matter what the score is. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, doesn’t matter there’s anyone in the stands. You can’t let that dictate how you play, and for the most part our guys did a really good job. Always concerned about those types of games, when it’s going that way, of coming out flat to start the third quarter. We’ve done that before in some blowout games, so I was very pleased for a new team to perform the way they did.”

On Suntarine Perkins’ performance:
“He was one of the defensive players of the game. Really was dynamic. Played really hard on special teams, had a good block on the punt return for a touchdown. He was as-advertised. You don’t always know that. Just because a guy’s ranked high in recruiting doesn’t always mean they’re gonna perform really well, especially in their first game. He did a great job.”

On the kicker competition between Caden Davis and Caden Costa:
“I think both of those guys have done a great job on special teams. They both kicked-off well and both are proven to make field goals. Again, like what we talked about with position group competition, you don’t really think about that with kicker. To make that room better in the off-season has been great, and it’s exciting to have both of those guys, that’s very rare.”

On Jaxson Dart’s reaction when named the starter:
“I don’t know, I think you’d have to ask him. I don’t think it was a big reaction. I think that he’s been here long enough to know that you just control what you can control and be ready to play, and it’s out of your control how many snaps you get to play. That’s our decision, we don’t always expect you to agree with it. We tell the players, but we expect them to respect and go play really hard regardless of what your role is.”

On who shined on tape:
“You saw Cayden Lee come in and play really well. I thought (Victor Curne) did really well to play left tackle and right tackle in the same game. He did a really good job, especially for somebody who actually played guard a lot in camp. That was really good to see. And then again for Walker (Howard) to come in and do that well was really awesome.”
 
On the special teams unit:
“I thought they did a really good job. First time in ten years a punt was returned for a touchdown and then to get a turnover on a kickoff was great. Sometimes you kinda luck into turnovers, the other team drops it or they muff it. To force it the way that Jam (Griffin) did, that’s a really good example of what we’re wanting guys to do. Guys come here a lot of time with expectations. Everybody wants to play. Everybody doesn’t get to, it doesn’t work out that way unfortunately. You’ve gotta seize your opportunities when they’re on special teams just like if you’re in the NFL you would. I thought Jam was a great example of that because I’m sure he’d like to carry the ball more, but that just wasn’t the case.”
 
On the cohesion he saw from the defense on film:
“Not very much on the first play. I did think for a lot of moving parts coming in and really a completely new defensive structure to play 3-4 with two outside linebackers and with Cedric (Johnson) being one of those, it was totally different from what we had played before, so I thought guys did a really good job.”
 
On Kyirin Heath’s impact Week 1 and role moving forward:
“Kyirin really did a good job. Stepped up and made plays. For somebody who had not played a lot in significant roles before to go out there and start, he did a really good job, great to see.”

On how the upcoming game versus Tulane will help evaluate the team:
“I’m not worried about evaluating, I’m worried about trying to go beat a top-25 team. This is not an evaluation game. Going on the road for the first time with this team into one of the hottest teams in the country and probably the hottest quarterback in the country. I would actually like another evaluation game, but that is certainly not what this is.”

On how long Juice has practiced his tee retrieval skills:
“This sounds crazy but I didn’t even know that was happening. I was actually coming out and getting ready for the first kickoff and I saw it, they didn’t even tell me, Wild Rose and Tom that train him. I’d seen him go out there and do it with ducks, I didn’t know he could do it with a kicking tee. I actually happened to be going right by when he did it so that was pretty neat. Surprisingly though I didn’t have anything to do with that and I didn’t even know it was happening.”

On Tulane’s turnaround in the last decade:
“I don’t know where they were 10 years ago but a few years ago they were 2-10. Amazing job by (Tulane head coach) Willie (Fritz) turning them around like that. I’m sure that’s gotta be one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of college football in one year. They’ve got really good coaching and they’ve got really good players. Usually if you’re gonna have that kind of turnaround it means you’re gonna have a great quarterback too, which they do.”

On Zxavian Harris’ performance:
“That was exciting to see. To have young, high school, Mississippi players making plays. He was a player of the game too. That was really awesome to see him make those plays and be that type of force.”

(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss)

Evelyn Van Pelt

Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.