Lane Kiffin encourages fans to show up for Vandy game, continue this season’s raucous home-field advantage in the Vaught
OXFORD, Miss. — Saturday is homecoming at Ole Miss, yet coach Lane Kiffin is more focused on a different kind of “home” term. He wants his team to have the home-field advantage in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when the No. 12 Rebels take on Vanderbilt.
Kiffin has seen how a home crowd can sway an atmosphere both in Oxford and on the road.
“The SEC in general, I know actually this morning I get a report about the home and road (games) and I don’t know this for other conferences, but I think that the home and road thing in the SEC is bigger than any other conference,” Kiffin said at his Monday presser. “I think you have dramatically really hard places to play here (in the SEC) and like Saturday night, even with Auburn having a down year it was an electric place and we had major cadence issues going on in the game where we can’t hear,” he added.
In the Rebels’ 28-21 win at Auburn last week, the 88,043 in Jordan-Hare Stadium caused several problems for Ole Miss.
“You see evidence all the time of how crowds are, you saw it last week (at Auburn), it affected our cadence and our false starts,” Kiffin said.
“Our crowds have been great this year lately and so we need it again. It helps impact games, so hopefully it is a great crowd (against Vanderbilt). It’s a good kickoff time, great weather so hopefully they’ll show up just like we ask our players to do.”
Lane Kiffin
So far at home this season, Ole Miss has drawn an average over 64,000 fans per game at home, including a record 66,703 against LSU.
“It’s why I’m encouraging our fans to come out like (they did against) Arkansas and LSU,” Kiffin said. “That’s what I want our players to do, show up every week.”
Not only has Kiffin experienced the Vaught-Hemingway vibe as the Rebels’ coach, he remembers how it felt on the visiting sideline.
“I remember when we were here at Alabama and lost it was electric, it was great,” Kiffin said. “Then we had Covid and the first couple of years there were some really disappointing games. Just like the fans were disappointed in me and our players and this year, for whatever reason, it’s felt a lot better in the conference games and it’s an advantage,” Kiffin added.
He went on to talk about what it’s meant to have the raucous home crowds this season.
“We’ve seen the false starts and the issues that (the opponents) have had in games, especially late in games, because of our crowd. Our student section has not just showed up, but really been electric.”
Lane Kiffin
Now in his fourth season at Ole Miss — Kiffin’s longest tenure in his coaching career at any stop — he has seen the energy change in the Rebels’ crowd, especially this season.
“It seems like it’s been different this year and so I don’t know exactly why but I’m glad it is, ” Kiffin said. “I remember whatever our record was a couple of years ago and we were highly ranked when we played Vanderbilt, I remember it was one of Matt (Corral’s) last games or something and let’s just say the place was not electric. So it seems like we’ve come a long ways and hopefully this week will be an example of that.”
With Saturday being homecoming weekend, lots of alumni are expected in Oxford. That combined with an excited fan base and a loyal student section, means Ole Miss should have a definite home-field advantage Saturday.
The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. and for those not able to make it to the stadium, it can be seen on the SEC Network.
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
Hey Steve, you’re shorting us in the AP Poll by calling us the #13 Rebels when we are in fact #12!
You’re absolutely right! It’s been updated! Hotty Toddy!
Hey Steve, you’re shorting us in the AP Poll when you call us #13 Rebels when we are in fact #12!