In Sunday presser, Coach Kiffin discusses Ole Miss defensive performance, injury updates and bye week
OXFORD, Miss. — Last year at this halfway mark of the season, the Ole Miss football team was 6-0 and had not really faced much in the way of adversity. The Rebels had beaten Troy, Central Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Tulsa, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt with the game against the Wildcats presenting the only real challenge. This year at the same midway mark, Ole Miss is 5-1 (2-1 SEC) but the team has faced better competition and much more adversity — and overcome it — that will hopefully serve the Rebs well in the back half.
Before the season began, head coach Lane Kiffin explained he felt this year’s unit is different from last year’s in that the 2023 team is better-equipped to handle obstacles.
“It’s easy to be a certain way in life or as a team until adversity hits, then it’s tougher when things aren’t going your way. I feel better about this team for when those situations happen,” Coach Kiffin explained back in August.
On Sunday night’s weekly zoom with Coach Kiffin, he talked with media after having had 24 hours to digest the come-from-behind win over Arkansas, 27-20, and talked more about about the fortitude of his team.
This year’s Rebel bunch has three times already (Tulane, LSU and Arkansas) overcome games in which they faced a second-half deficit.
“I think this team is different,” Kiffin said on Sunday’s call.
“Coaches say that, but I do. It showed up against Tulane and it’s showed up in about three games that we’ve been behind late in the game. I think that part is different from last year’s team. That team, just coming off a Sugar Bowl year, a lot of marquee portal names that I always said if it doesn’t go good, that’s a hard situation to be, like with free agents in the NBA. Either goes really well or towards the end of the year, it doesn’t.”
Lane Kiffin
Last season the Rebels reached a 7-0 plateau, only to lose 5 of the team’s last six games, including a loss to Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl.
After the Tulane game last month, where the Rebels were actually behind at the half, Jaxson Dart echoed his head coach’s sentiments on the mentality of this team.
“Our team in this game last year would’ve lost. It just says a lot about the culture we have here and the work we put in.”
Jaxson Dart
The Ole Miss defense, led this year by new defensive coordinator Pete Golding, has shown its own level of character. Against LSU, Tulane and Arkansas, the defense made plays to secure the victories, whether it was a scoop and score courtesy of Jared Ivey vs. the Green Wave, a heavily-defended pass in the end zone vs. LSU from Daijahn Anthony, or the interceptions made by Ashanti Cistrunk and John Saunders Jr. vs. the Razorbacks.
Depth helping fourth-quarter defensive performances
Simply put, the defense got the job done in the fourth quarter of each of those games. Coach Kiffin was asked Sunday if his team’s depth is a factor in their fourth-quarter prowess.
“I can see that on defense. We played more guys and played a number of guys up front on defense,” he replied.
There is no doubt the Ole Miss defense was in top form against the Hogs. The Rebels held Arkansas to only 288 total yards, the fewest allowed against an SEC opponent since Oct. 5, 2019 against Vanderbilt (264). Further, they gave up just 36 total rushing yards, their lowest against an SEC opponent since holding Tennessee to zero on Oct. 18, 2014.
Just last season, Rocket Sanders torched the Rebels for 232 years on the ground — by himself. Saturday, he mustered just 15 total yards on 8 carries.
After having given up 600+ yards of offense and 44 points a week ago against LSU, Coach Kiffin was asked how his defense was able to respond just seven days later with such a dominating performance.
“Not playing LSU’s quarterbacks and receivers. That’s not a good recipe for defenses around the SEC this year,” Kiffin said jokingly.
“But seriously, I thought we did a better job containing the quarterback, stopping the run and making him one dimensional. That’ll change the game a lot.”
Lane Kiffin on defensive play vs. Arkansas
Offensive injury updates
While the defense played well Saturday, the offense struggled — and did not look to be the well-oiled machine seen against LSU. Coach Kiffin said Sunday part of that can be attributed to Jaxson Dart’s injury suffered on the first play of the game, some of it was untimely offensive penalties and some to balls that were dropped by receivers.
“We’ve needed (Dart) to be extremely accurate and play really well all year long, and sometimes you take that for granted when you see missed passes and stuff, how well he’s played. I think part of that was due to his injury during the game… and we didn’t help him either,” Kiffin said.
Ole Miss will now enjoy a bye week, giving the team time to work on improvements and to get healthy. In addition to Dart’s injury, wide receiver Tre Harris was also hurt against Arkansas.
He was asked about the status of each of his two star playmakers and, specifically, whether he thought Dart’s injury would affect his availability in two weeks. “I do not. He’ll be fine,” Kiffin said.
It sounded Sunday as if Harris, too, will be available. “I would anticipate by the time we play, he would be fine.”
Bye Week
Last season, the Rebels played nine games before they finally got a bye week. Coach Kiffin was asked how he feels about having the team’s bye week come now after six games.
“It all depends. There’s so many variables,” Kiffin said. “You don’t know. How is your schedule early? Obviously injuries. We’re halfway through the season. We’re 5-1. We lost to Alabama — and I’ve been very critical of our performance in that game and I think people were very critical of us in that game.”
Coach Kiffin went on to reflect about the loss to the Tide and give it some perspective.
I try to remind myself, as much as I wanted or expected to win that game, that’s the hardest place to play over the last, what, six years or something like that, (with them) losing one SEC home game to arguably the greatest team in the history of college football, to (LSU QB) Joe Burrow and company. That’s a hard place to play in his conference. It’s a refreshing reminder when we took so much heat for losing that game in Tuscaloosa, like every team in his conference has done,” Kiffin said.
Next Up:
After this coming weekend’s bye, Ole Miss will travel to Auburn to play Hugh Freeze’s Tigers on October 21. The time of the game and network will be announced Monday.
(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.
