WHAT THEY SAID: Lane Kiffin, Jaxson Dart, Princely Umanmielen and Caden Prieskorn discuss Rebels’ 26-14 win over Oklahoma

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss defeated Oklahoma, 26-14, Saturday in a must-win game for the Rebels. After the game, head coach Lane Kiffin, quarterback Jaxson Dart, defensive lineman Princely Umanmielen, and tight end Caden Prieskorn spoke with media.

For the Sooners, head coach Brent Venables, strong safety Billy Bowman, center Troy Everett, and linebacker Danny Stutsman discussed the game.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin

Opening Statement:

“Alright, you know, proud of our guys. The first half, obviously we didn’t play very well and they had the touchdown drive at the end. But the previous scoring drive had penalties to keep it alive on defense and offensively we just didn’t finish the drives after the first drive. But I was really pleased because obviously there was some dead energy at half in there after coming off a loss and being down in the first half; so that was really good to see. It’s a lot of adversity to kind of fight through there and to come out immediately three and out on defense, score a touchdown, then three and out again, and score a touchdown again. It was a great response. I’m really proud of the second half, whatever that would have been, 16 to nothing, I think. I thought our defense in the second half played as advertised. Very defensive line dominant in the second half, continuing to stop them and all the sacks, I think there were six in the second half. It was great to see. It’s good to have Princely [Umanmielen] back. You know, obviously, we missed him the game before, rushing the quarterback, so it’s good to have him back.

Offensively, I thought Jaxson [Dart] played a really efficient game. I know it’s not as, you know, big statics as some previous games. When you play without Tre Harris, that’s been an issue for us. I was really pleased with how the tight ends played and stepped up. Cayden Lee played hurt as you can probably even see in there and Juice [Wells] made a play and Jordan Watkins. So, that was good. It’s been different lineups up front. Micah [Pettus], actually, right before the game said he couldn’t play. So, Juice moved outside to right tackle. I thought we struggled in the run game against a really good run defense that most people struggle against, but I do think they pass-protected well. So, good win.”

On the defense holding Oklahoma to only 23 total yards in the 3rd quarter:

“You know, adjustments are a lot of the time overrated. When coaches win, they’ll be like ‘Oh we did all this stuff!’ Really, I just thought at halftime we had a first half of a quarter that was never called that we were playing against. They went back to their other quarterback, ran some different quarterback runs, and that’s an adjustment period. I think Pete’s [Golding] is really good. At half, I thought, hey, they kind of shot their shot with a bunch of different plays in the first half, offensively, and now they’re gonna have to settle down and run normal plays against us. I thought that was to our advantage. Once that happened, we got a better feel of their coordinator calling plays. So, that’s how we expected to play, but we’re concerned early. Everybody’s like ‘Oh, oh, you know your defense and the matchup in the game,’ and I say ‘Well they’re putting back the quarterback that, in my opinion, is a lot more efficient.’ He doesn’t put them in as many poor situations and I think he’s really good. A new play caller is challenging you, you have no idea what their rhythm is or what they’re gonna do. So, I just thought it was a really good adjustment by Pete [Golding].”

On the defense making ten sacks:

“Well, I think we’ve got really good defensive linemen, as you said all along. You know, I kind of struggled that Princely [Umanmielen] not being there in the last game, knowing that LSU was going to be such a pass-heavy game with those tackles, but it is what it is. It’s great to have him back like I said today. We’ve been in that position with both our losses, with the ball, ahead by one score and not pushing it to two scores. Because when you push it to two, now they’ve got to throw more and our pass rush can come alive. It’s really what I was hoping was happening when we had the ball in the last game. So, I think that helped, getting up two scores and then we were able to pass-rush more.

Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart

On the loss two weeks ago and what has changed in the program since:

“I wish we could have played the very next day and get that feeling out of our mouth. Coach [Lane] Kiffin talked about it; we are two plays away this season from being the number one team in the country. So, this one felt really good. Definitely, at halftime, there were a lot of discussions amongst us players and we felt like we missed out on a critical opportunity in the first half. So, it felt really good to get back in the win column and hopefully, we can continue to stack these.”

On the rest of the team stepping up with Tre Harris being out:

“I thought we did a great job and I thought the coaches did a great job scheming up the last two weeks. Just with getting in different sets that we haven’t been in a lot this year. I was super proud of a lot of guys stepping up. Micah Davis got a huge third down conversion, which I felt was a play that changed the momentum of the game. So, guys knew their role this week and I thought they did a great job handling it.”

On what changed between the first half to the second half:

“I thought the second drive of the game, I made some bad decisions. From then on, I felt like we moved the ball up and down the field really the whole game. The last two drives we were trying to run the clock, but besides those I felt like we moved the ball a lot. But we didn’t score touchdowns in the red zone and I felt like that’s been the issue for us this season. We knew what he had to do and we just took it play-by-play in the second half and were able to execute in the red zone and make some big plays.”

On tight ends stepping up:

“I love throwing to them. They are extremely great players and they do amazing things with the ball in their hands. So, I was happy we could scheme some things up and get them the ball, especially us attacking the middle of the field. I feel like that’s something we have lacked so I was really happy with our ability to do that and those guys made really great explosive plays.”

Ole Miss TE Caden Prieskorn

On having a big game today against an SEC opponent:

“It felt awesome being out there with my brothers and going to battle with them. Really it was just another opportunity. We fell short a few weeks ago and we really wanted to bounce back and we did in a big way today.”

On preparation for this game:

“The last two weeks we really just doubled down on the fundamentals. Coming back and getting better together. I felt like we had a great bye week with great preparation as a whole on offense, defense, and special teams which I think showed today. Obviously we made a lot of mistakes but we’ll bounce back and come back ready to play again next week.”

On being on the field with Daequan Wright:

“It’s awesome being out there with him. Going twelve people out, it’s newer and we haven’t done it much but it proved effective today in getting them off balance on defense. It’s something we’ve worked really hard at and it’s something that can help us down the stretch.”

Ole Miss DL Princely Umanmielen

On his postgame tweet about being back:

“It felt really good to be back. Even going into the game I wasn’t sure how much action I would see because it was still bothering me a little but during the midweek.. These last few weeks were really hard for me watching my team and not being able to go out there and help. During LSU especially, it was really hard but I just kept my faith in God and hoped my injury would get better and it all paid off.”

On Walter Nolen going down and taking over that leadership role:

“I never felt like it was solely on me. I knew I had to step up, but I trust everyone we have, especially our depth on the D-line. Walter Nolen is an amazing player but we have great guys behind him who can step up to the plate.”

On the ten sacks the defense had today:

“It felt amazing because we work day in and day out. We go through a lot of walk-throughs and a lot of meetings that prepare us to get after the quarterback. Whenever it translates in the game it feels great. I feel like we showed how great our defensive line is today which is a testament to the work these guys put in.”

Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables

Opening Statement:

“A real frustrating game, had a great opportunity going into halftime to win coming out of the half.  Third quarter, just really played poorly in the third quarter. But hey, we did some really good things, at the end of the day we beat ourselves with some explosive plays on defense, not getting anything going on offense, just couldn’t find that rhythm. Football is a game of rhythm, we had a great rhythm in the first half on both sides of the ball, in the second half, until the third quarter they got into that rhythm and scored a couple of explosive touchdowns, they had a couple of good drives that they put together. We got beat on a little play action and they slipped number 3 down the middle, got beat on a double move, for another explosive touchdown, and then we lost the field position and they did a good job of flipping the field and working off our own goal line. Hunter did a nice job and they did a good job knocking us backwards. The offense had really good control in the first half, they’re really fantastic and had a really good rhythm. We put the ball on the ground and the defense responded and did a really nice job of responding there and not turning it into any points and got a stop. A good first half, had a 10 play, 8 play, 8 play, 13 play drive, had a 14 play drive in the second half turned into a turnover on downs there. But saw some improvement there and again Jackson at times was really good and clean and made a ton of good decisions. We were running the ball in a really efficient way. That was a team that, going in, I think that they were only giving up less than 70 yards a game rushing. We had 125 plus in the first and not a whole lot in the second half. But we go into a great rhythm to 3rd and 4th down. First half we were seven out of nine on 3rd and 4th down in the first half on offense. Overall, we were just under 50 percent, not very good in the second half but overall offense just under 50 percent conversion of 3rd and 4th downs against a good and experienced defense and I think they were just under 35 percent conversion rate. So, a lot of good things that we played to give ourselves a chance but the explosive plays were a killer and losing our rhythm on offense for three-plus quarters there, it’s just hard. It’s a good football team that puts a lot of pressure on you, they did a nice job coming back out in the second half and played winning football when they needed to, and we weren’t able to put things together like we were in the first half and that’s how the game went.”

On keeping the mood in the locker room up after three straight losses:

“To be honest with you, sometimes the truth hurts, some people may not like that. But these are guys that deeply care for each other, they care for their coaches, they care about their opportunity. They have a lot of respect for being an Oklahoma Sooner, what that means to them and their future. They believe in how we do what we do in regards to preparation and what the game requires and what success requires. They also understand that the game don’t owe you nothing, you can do everything you’re supposed to do and still be on the losing end of it.

On the hope of the team based on how they played in the first half:

“We had a great stop and a perfect picture two-minute drill going into halftime, really emphasized trying to win the middle eight. Obviously we didn’t do that coming out in the second quarter, but again I think it showed what we are capable of. Again there is no silver lining, our expectation was to come here and win. It was a 60-minute, four-quarter game and we weren’t able to sustain that.”

Oklahoma SS Billy Bowman 

On the difference between the halves:

“We felt like we came out energized. We were hyped coming out of the room at halftime. We had everything going for us. We showed improvement. That third quarter we kind of died out and we hurt ourselves a lot. We gotta play a four-quarter ball game and have everything together at the end of the day.”

On communication issues with plays:

“As players we gotta put that on ourselves and get lined up. We knew they (Ole Miss) were gonna go fast. At the end of the day we have to get the call right and communicate. Even though they are moving fast, that is not an excuse.”

On the team sticking together through losses:

“We have been sticking together as a team like you said. Three straight weeks in a row coming out on the wrong side of things it hurts at the end of the day. I think what is most important is the leaders and captains on this team. We all have that mindset of ‘there is only one option’ and that option is getting back tomorrow, watching the film, get it down the drain, and go right back to work.”

Oklahoma center Troy Everett

On improving younger players:

“I tell them to have short memories. If you have a bad play, next play. You can’t dwell on one play for the rest of the game.”

On protection throughout the game:
“It’s gotta stay consistent. You can’t aim too high or be too low. We had a good first half. Gotta go out there and play all four quarters.”

Oklahoma MLB Danny Stutsman

On confidence from the offense:

“I mean we definitely got some things going. At the end of the day we have to be better on both sides of the ball.”

On building from plays in the first half:

“We came out there after the first half and did a phenomenal job. Had all the momentum, we just had to keep that momentum rolling to the third and fourth quarters. Unfortunately, we did not do that and it cost us the win.”