Lane Kiffin praises the Ole Miss offense, challenges the defense as Rebels prepare for Arkansas
OXFORD, Miss. – At his weekly Monday press conference, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin praised his offense for its performance and improvement from the week before while also challenging his defense to do the same.
Let’s do it again next Saturday 🍿@Lane_Kiffin | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/JStllxtSR6
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) October 1, 2023
Commending the Offense
The Rebel offense entered this past Saturday ranked second in the SEC in total offense. As everyone saw in the thrilling last-second win, Ole Miss took on the number one offense in the LSU Tigers, ready to go toe-to-toe.
Two weeks ago, the Rebels scored the least amount of points in a game in the Kiffin era in a 24-10 loss at Alabama. Afterward, Kiffin challenged the unit to work hard in last week’s practice and do better. That they did as the Ole Miss offense is coming off a 55-point performance in the win over LSU — and now sits atop the SEC in scoring offense at 44.6 points per game.
The Rebel offensive line faced a lot of criticism going into the LSU game. After keeping quarterback Jaxson Dart off the grass all night and racking up 300 yards rushing, Kiffin named them the offensive player(s) of the game.
“Really good. The offensive player of the game was the offensive line. I have been very hard on them and critical. They did a really, really good job.“
Lane Kiffin on the o-line
While the offensive line did step up big time for the Rebels, it was Dart’s performance that has taken center stage following the win as he was honored by the league Monday as the SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week.
“He threw the ball really well and was very competitive. Saturday, he had two of those deeper throws that are a little bit under thrown that ended up being incompletions. But he played great and his mentality of how he played and jumping over the guy the last play of the third quarter is awesome for the team.”
Lane Kiffin on Jaxson Dart
SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week 🎯@JaxsonDart | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/jb3S4FwMXp
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) October 2, 2023
Despite all the praise, Kiffin said there is always work to be done for this offense. Penalties seemed to be a big issue on Saturday for the Rebels, with a majority of the flags being thrown on the offense.
Kiffin said he is using this as fuel to bring his team back to reality following the big win.
“I think we didn’t play well in a lot of areas, special teams, penalties, a defensive disaster…that allows us to know we have a lot of work to do. Offensive penalties, some misreads…we didn’t play great as a team so I think we got a lot of (their) attention today on the tape.”
Lane Kiffin
Challenging the defense
One half of football in Tuscaloosa looked really good for Pete Golding’s group two weeks ago. Unfortunately, Jayden Daniels and the LSU Tigers came to town with their top-ranked offense and exposed a lot of issues.
The Rebel defense is currently giving up the fourth-most total yards per game in the SEC, over 400 yards of offense per game. Ole Miss gave up 637 yards to LSU this past weekend, something Kiffin was not fond of; however, he did give the Tigers their props.
“We played extremely well on offense and played really bad on defense. Part of that is credit to them. That’s (LSU) an NFL offense. I felt like we played an NFL offense..the size, the length, the way the back ran physically and the two receivers who will play a long time on Sundays. We had not really seen a premier passing team like that. We have a lot of work to do. Good thing we won….“
Lane Kiffin
The task at hand this week isn’t going to get much easier. The last time Arkansas visited the Vaught two years ago, it was a shootout that was decided on the last play of the game. Kiffin told the media how he addressed his defense to begin the week.
“Just using that example, the offense didn’t play very well at all two weeks ago and then had a really good week of practice, played a lot better. So, we just did the same for the defense today (and challenged them),” Kiffin explained.
Typically during his tenure at Arkansas, head coach Sam Pittman sets up a hard-nosed, running offense for the Razorbacks. Although Akansas sits in the bottom half of the SEC in rushing, running back Rocket Sanders is still getting healthy as he returns from a knee injury and quarterback KJ Jefferson is adjusting to a new play caller.
Kiffin spoke on facing Jefferson for a third straight year.
“I think he gets bigger every year,” Kiffin quipped. “This guy is so hard to bring down, so hard to play against, always brings a great game against us.”
Missed tackles and missed opportunities seemed to be the biggest issue for the Ole Miss defense in the second half versus Alabama, and that carried over into the LSU game. Kiffin made it known these are the issues being drilled into the players’ heads as they get ready for a gritty, Pittman-led program that Kiffin expects will play Ole Miss a very tough game.
“Not really bulletin board material. I just use it as saying, ‘It doesn’t matter what happened last year.’ With Arkansas playing against Ole Miss, it doesn’t matter what they’ve done before. If I remember correctly, I think the week before us they lost to Liberty. Didn’t move the ball very well [against Liberty], and then they came out against us and looked like a top-five team in the country. It doesn’t matter what’s happened before. So, I did use that game as evidence of how these guys come to play against us.“
Lane Kiffin on Arkansas
Up Next
Tuesday morning, media will have the opportunity to view the opening periods of practice and The Rebel Walk will bring you a full report.
On October 7th at 6:30 pm CT, the Rebels take on Arkansas in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on the SEC Network.
Stripe the Vaught 🔵🔴
🆚 Arkansas
🗓️ Oct. 7
🕡 6:30 PM
📺 @SECNetwork #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/Px71clj4tF— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) October 2, 2023
Hotty Toddy!
Kameron Wicker
Kam is a senior at Ole Miss, currently pursuing a degree in Journalism. Even though he's from Delhi, Louisiana, that didn't stop Kam from growing up a diehard Ole Miss fan. He's a sports guru who watches and follows all sports at all times. He lettered four years in football and baseball in high school and is an avid Saints, Pelicans, and Astros fan. In his free time, you can find him watching sports or at the rec participating in them.
