Monday Presser: Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin preparing for the Rebels’ week-one matchup against Furman
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin met with the media on Monday as the Rebels prepare to host Furman to open the season on Saturday.
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Mock game
The Rebels closed camp on Saturday with a scrimmage and Kiffin discussed what he saw.
“Our mock game on Saturday, I thought our coaches and players did a really good job of making it realistic,” Kiffin explained. “I thought that was really important with so many new players to know what we do and how anything from the clap session to the locker room and stretch line to the hotel meals I thought it went really well that way.”
In the mock game, the Rebels went up against their service team.
“Now, obviously when we do that, we set up kind of the other team is made up of our service guys,” Kiffin said. “So the game usually always goes in our favor. I thought that the ability to run the ball on offense, which is really important, we got a lot of receiver injuries going in this first game, so the ability to run the ball is going to be very important in this game. I thought our defense did well. We got to do a better job in the back end, but I thought our front did a good job.”
Kiffin also discussed the week-one opponents, the Furman Paladins.
“And as far as Furman, I think they’re extremely well coached. They play really, really hard. They’ve won a lot of games. It’s 14-14 last year in the second at South Carolina. So when you watch them, they play physical and they play with a lot of intensity. So this is going to be a really good challenge for us.”
Lane Kiffin on Furman
Chris Kiffin joins staff
On Sunday, reports broke about Chris Kiffin joining the staff as an analyst.
“Yeah, this is something kind of with a lot of different things and my father, you know, that something that we discussed and were able to work out,” Lane Kiffin said.
“So it’s really awesome to have him around, without being too personal. I think that, I know my dad’s excited about that and, you know, this is, he reminded me our fourth time working together, so it’s awesome, especially as his four kids will be here and they’re actually on the same street as me, so moved in two nights ago. So that’s really cool and really awesome and from a coaching standpoint, gives us some experience and good ability to game plan and knowledge.”
Lane Kiffin on adding Chris Kiffin to staff
Caden Prieskorn’s Leadership
Kiffin was asked about Rebels’ tight end Caden Prieskorn, whose father also passed away recently.
“Well, he leads by example, by how he works,” Kiffin began. “And, you know, you never know how players can help coaches. You know, he lost his father, I guess it would be 10 months ago now or something, and watching him have to go through that and him turn around and help me with the same situation, which I certainly didn’t imagine at the time, you know, nine months later that he just did with me. So he’s awesome. Their whole family is awesome. And I think it’s really neat to have so much around.”
Kiffin also went so far as to talk about the “family” feeling around the program right now, something he does not usually do.
“I said this the other day. Everybody talks about family, and we don’t really, like, promote that in recruiting like a lot of people do, because I think it’s overused and really isn’t accurate,” he said.
“But this unit of staff and players and building really feels like a family, I think, because you have so many players that came back, too, that we’ve been with for a while also, and especially, like Caden, with having two kids. And so it’s pretty neat.”
Next Up:
Ole Miss and Furman kickoff at 6 p.m. and can be seen on the SEC Network+. Furman is coming into the 2024 season after going 10-3 last season.
Adam Brown
Adam Brown joins The Rebel Walk as the Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years. He is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Prior to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community.
