TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin Said After Ole Miss’ 26-14 win over State in Egg Bowl

OXFORD, Miss. — After his Ole Miss team beat Mississippi State on Friday, 26-14, at Vaught-Hemingway, Rebels’ head coach Lane Kiffin met with media to talk about the game, what the win means to Ole Miss fans, what the seniors have meant to the program and, specifically, what Jaxson Dart has meant as quarterback.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin had to say:

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement

Alright, really happy for our fans, players that played here before.This is obviously, as you guys know, a huge game in the state. And, it’s hard for players, or coaches, really, until you get here, to understand that. Now being in five of them, I understand that, but I think our players probably felt that early with so many new players to understand, even though we told them a million times, records don’t matter. It happens in these games. Weird things happen in these Egg Bowls. And it really doesn’t matter that you happen to be, we were, I think, the number one passing team coming in. Well, that stuff doesn’t mean anything. And the game kind of started that way. You know, give Lebby credit. He had them ready to go. They did a good job offensively early, and he took risks, which is what you’ve got to do as an underdog. So I respect that. You know, fake punt and another fourth-down conversion for the touchdown on the same drive got them some momentum. Otherwise, they only score one time the whole day.

So, happy our guys finished, I guess, 16-to-nothing I guess, to end the game. And we gave up the explosive play down to the one, I thought that was really neat, because so often, especially against tempo teams, they just run it in. For our guys to make four plays in a row to stop them there. Even though we were up 12, we could have just let them score. And I thought that was really, for me, that was a really cool memory for that to happen in this game.

The game was probably different than a lot of people would have thought, but those guys came in and played three safeties deep like a prevent defense that it’s hard to throw the ball in and make you run the ball. And so we did that, you know. 51 carries and only 24 pass attempts. So we just kind of had to probably look different to everybody, but we just had to play a little different style in order to win. And that’s a little bit conservative, but at the same time, too, you know, we’ve got no turnovers. We had no turnovers. They had three. And that was a big difference in the game.

So, happy for our seniors. You know I guess that’s 38 wins for the four-year guys, 44 wins for the five-year guys. And I think they left a mark here. There’s actually masking tape up there when we had a speaker, Kevin Elko, that was close with my dad, actually, you know, did my dad’s funeral, and he put masking tape up there because he talked about how masking tape leaves behind then you go to pull it off, and it leaves a mark. It leaves a legacy. And, I really just noticed that again this week when I was talking about these seniors and these guys that were here, that they left a legacy. I know we screwed up last week, so take off the focus of that and look at the whole product of what they’ve done.

You know, they came here, the four previous seasons, I think had averaged five wins, four wins, five wins, five wins, you know. And they came here not knowing whether Ole Miss was going to be great, and they were a huge part of this run that, you know, hopefully go win our postseason game and get to ten wins, three of the last four years. So, I’m really happy for those guys and proud and especially in a time that people don’t stay. Players don’t stay. For these guys that stayed through this, even though their careers probably weren’t exactly perfect as they had planned, I’m just really happy for those guys.

And then the quarterback (Jaxson Dart). You know he’s just, he’s awesome. I mean there’s a way you want your son to be, that’s what you want to have. Complete team player, doesn’t care about stats or anything. And he could care less that he threw for 143 yards today. You saw the way he ran, his emotion at the end of the game. I just tried to help keep him to keep it together because he cares, man. He cares about his team. He cares about this university. And that doesn’t happen a lot in college football anymore, if you if you look around. So this guy is special. I hope people appreciate him. Yesterday he became the all-time leader, passing Eli, in the history of the school and the most wins in the history of the school for a quarterback. So I’m sure there’s appreciation, but I hope everybody has appreciation for what they watched with this guy and how he plays the game. And the guy’s playing with a bad ankle the whole time too.

Media: We saw the video of you and Jaxson and that embrace at the end. If you don’t mind sharing, can you just walk us through kind of the emotions of that moment with him?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, it really wasn’t a planned thing. I usually walk off pretty quick and, sometimes I think after those, like, you know, that I don’t necessarily stay in the moment enough, especially for guys that it’s their kind of last time on a field. And so I just wanted to find him and just tell him how much I appreciated him. And, I didn’t realize the camera was rolling because I didn’t think they’d started the interview yet. And he just said he loved me and started crying. So that kind of got to me. So I was trying to be the coach and get him to stop crying. But that’s who he is, man. That again, that’s a lost generation whatever of in college football now. You know, that guy’s passion. That guy plays the way like Tom Luke talks about this rivalry. You know, the way he talks about how it used to be and how much — Tom won’t drive a maroon rental car — will not — won’t step foot in one, won’t let anyone give him a ride in one. That’s how Jaxson Dart plays the game, so he’s just really special. So I just wanted to go find him and tell him thanks.

Media: Obviously brought up Jaxson, but him and guys like JJ (Pegues) and Jared Ivey and Jordan Watkins, they all came here. And that before the 2022 season that transfer class, they played their last home game here today. Just what did that group specifically mean to the culture of this program?

Lane Kiffin: A lot, you know, they again stayed through and they helped bring other people in and had some highs and lows — a lot of highs — and then really had the year where we were kind of low or whatever. We were 8-1, 9-1, whatever it was, and have Alabama here to go to 8-1or something with the ball. And then we screw up after that. And then, so it could have been the program sliding off, and they helped bring it back and go to 10 wins the next season or 11 wins the next season. So, it’s just awesome. I think it’s so much, it’s such a better story in life when when you don’t just go somewhere and things are already going (well) and you’re just part of it, whether that’s a corporation, a team, whatever. And you just plug and play and like, ‘okay, I’m here.’ And then they were winning championships before and now I’m winning them. When you come where a place had been down and not been winning, and I said to these senior guys that have been here forever, you know, they reminded me of their Egg Bowl the year before we got here, the ending of that and losing that, you know, and now to to have turned the programs to where they’re going into a game as a huge favorite in the Egg Bowl and looking at going 9-3 and people upset at that. That’s perspective of where it came in five years because of these guys. So, I just think it’s really special when you go do something that hasn’t been done before somewhere.

Media: Lane, coming into this game, you guys were less than a 10% chance of making the College Football Playoff. Now that you’ve won the game, what are your thoughts on this team’s chances, your opinion? If you had a chance to speak to the committee.

Lane Kiffin: I don’t know. I’m not going to really do that. I’ll really just watch the games tomorrow and see how that unfolds and maybe then you know, but I don’t know. I kind of was lost in this game and just making sure we won this game. I’m on the radio show, really my comments about the SEC, just so I’m not going to politic for us, but the SEC is just different. It’s different when you play. It’s different when you go and play these places. You got to go play on the road. Like those three upsets last week that are on Senior Day at three of the hardest, probably ten places in the country to play that those other conferences might go the whole year not playing in a place like that. So it’s just different.

Media: Lane, specifically on Jaxson breaking Eli’s record. You’ve had a part in that. I’m sure he’ll say that you’ve had a part in that I guess. What does that mean? How impressive is that to you?

Lane Kiffin: I’ve kind of stayed away from stats this year a lot, so probably haven’t really figured that out, very much about that, breaking that record, because really the theme was to try to keep all these kind of high-profile guys out of the stat worlds and playing for a team and playing for each other. So I really hadn’t even thought about it until I heard it on the loudspeakers or whatever. So, it’s really neat. Really cool, obviously a phenomenal player that he passed, but I don’t give a whole lot to that because I’m sure Eli would probably tell you they didn’t have tempo, so he’d probably say if they had tempo, then he wouldn’t have passed his record. So Jaxson gets more snaps, probably.

Media: Jaxson played a little bit at USC when he was there, but did you know that he had that toughness and leadership when he got here? And I guess when did you realize he had those qualities?

Lane Kiffin: We saw some of that in high school film, the style that he played. And then, really as you get to know his parents, and I mean, like usually awesome kids come from awesome parents and that’s how they play. Mom runs marathons and trains every day. Dad was a great defensive player at Utah. So that personality is in there. But then you have this whole other side. I mean, they’re here, yesterday, they brought blankets that they brought from Utah, these really awesome blankets that they brought and hand delivered. Jaxson’s walking up the stairs with his parents, taking them to every single coach up here, just thanking them for helping Jaxson. So, they’re just a really cool family. I’m fortunate to have met them.

Media: After last week, Jaxson said that he did not know how the team was going to respond. He had an idea of how they would respond. What was this week like for you guys, what did you say? What did Jaxson say to try to get the team rallied around to get this victory today?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I think that game, he just showed leadership throughout the week. But that game (State)  gets hard in the defense that they’re playing because we’re not a great running team. So you got to be patient in that. And the quarterback’s got to be patient. You know, that defense with the three safeties as it was going on in the game, like for those who’ve been here a long time, that’s the defense Arkansas played against us when we threw like seven picks, seven turnovers, six interceptions. You know he’d come off being a great offense and huge week against Alabama. And then all of a sudden they just, you know kept everybody back. So, you got to be really patient at quarterback. You can’t get frustrated. You can’t try to make too many plays down the field. And you’ve got to take vertical scrambles like he did today. And we had to run him some too against that defense. So, he just did a great job of handling the situation.

Media: Coach, another game where Tre (Harris) didn’t play. And of course, being Senior Day, I’m sure it was a little hard for him. Just first, do you guys have an update on him and how he’s going to be going forward with with bowl games? And also, how did he feel, you know, not being able to play on his Senior Night?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, he was down. He’s an awesome competitor. You know, to go back out there last week, and then, whatever, the 1% chance you get hit on the exact spot of the injury. This has just been a strange year, so obviously wish we were better than 9-3, but a lot of strange things happened this year. You know, you go 0-for-three in one-score games, and every other game is multiple-score wins. Tre never even completed, or he only played one full SEC game, and then right before the season, we have a receiver and a running back that should be really star players in our system end up being ineligible. So it’s just been kind of a strange year. You know, I always think about the Kentucky game. We forced the fumble and it bounces to them for the touchdown or everything’s different. So, it is what it is. Strange year. Strange things have happened. And the Tre injuries were really unfortunate.

Media: Coach, you go into the half up three against a two-win team. What do you tell your guys throughout the week and especially at halftime to not underestimate the opponent on the other side.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, it was good that we talked about that during the week because sometimes these guys think ‘okay, well the records would show we’re just going to go blow them out.’ And so that’s your job as a coach to teach them that ain’t going to necessarily go that way. And it hadn’t gone that way in some of their games too. You know these guys hung around. Look at Texas right before half. You know Georgia, ends up being a ten-point game. So, and these guys had started fast on offense. So to think that you’re just going to come in and, you know, blow them out because of the records, that just usually doesn’t happen. And so it was good they were prepared for this to be tough.

Media: Lane, I know you’ve had to answer a lot of questions this year about the ground game and then having 254 yards today. Just what do you kind of make of that aspect of the offense today? And especially Ulysses Bentley stepping up with a 100-yard game and the 89-yard touchdown.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, that was awesome. I mean, huge momentum play for that ball to break and him to make that play. And I was so happy for him and the team at that time. So, it’s really good that you never know when it’s going to happen. And, like I said, during the week, when we got all the questions about it, the guy has been awesome, been a complete team guy, you know, and then answered when his number was called today.

Media: I guess on that note, 20 carries today (for Bentley), none against Florida. What changed in between this week and last week to give him the workload?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I just felt the pressure from you guys (jokingly). You know, where’s that guy (Ben Garrett, who asked Kiffin about Bentley last Monday)? Is he not here today? Oh, okay, so he complained about Bentley and he didn’t show up. So, no, you know, different games are different, and this may not make a lot of sense to you. You play different people by styles of also of the defense that you play and how you kind of think things are going to evolve and your matchups up front and does it create space for penetration. And so, sometimes you go with different players, kind of like in basketball when people play different rotations and stuff. And then obviously when somebody hits one, you know, like he hits the long run, you’re going to go back to him more.

Media: Lane, all throughout the season, you talked about this defense, specifically this defensive front kind of being the game changer and putting you all into contending status. Half of their second-half yards came on basically one play. Did it seem kind of fitting that their final possession just ended with a goal line stand after being tested early, especially those one on one matchups.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think that that those plays right there was kind of like the game a little bit. You know, we’re giving up these deep balls, go routes, which is what Lebby throws a bunch of, and we give up a deep one into the slot down to the one. But we don’t break. We stop them after that. So, the defense has done that a lot this year, giving up some explosive plays, but then we’ve answered the call in a number of times, kind of in the second half. Maybe like the Oklahoma game here where we give up some early and then we shut it down in the second half. And really they score their 14 points in the last play of the first quarter. So they don’t score again for the next three quarters.