TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said after the Rebels’ 30-23 road win over Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. —  Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke with media after the Rebels’ 30-23 win over Kentucky Saturday night in Lexington. Coach Kiffin talked about his team’s performance, the health of Austin Simmons after an ankle injury, the impact of the Ole Miss d-line and more.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin said:

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement

Alright, really proud of our guys. You know, coming on the road in the SEC and winning is a hard thing to do. You play four of these, for now, you play four every year, and they’re hard. So it’s like, you just have a relief to cross them off and and get wins on the road. So proud of our guys. You know, we started poor. We’re down 10-0. Guys made a heck of a play to convert the fourth down, you know? Otherwise, it’s 10-0 and they’re gonna have the ball in our territory. And you guys know, we play aggressive, but it takes players to make the plays. And that really, to me, that was a big turn there, they were going to get the ball back, up 10-0. And from there we go on, you know, 30-10 run until the last field goal there at the end. So proud of our guys. How they played wasn’t perfect. Austin was okay to go back in and showed a lot of courage. Kind of the opposite of the Georgia game for Jaxson. And, you know, so he was ready to go. We just had a plan there. Wanted to go to Trinidad with Austin not being full speed and, it was good. You know, really that game a lot towards the end really was like last year, just all three phases went the other way. Last year we had them all before and could have ended the game, you know, going down to score. And instead we gave them the ball back and and we didn’t stop them and they went down the field and scored. And then we missed a field goal. And this was exactly the opposite. We stopped them on a fourth down. We go the length of the field and score to make it two scores and make the field goal. So really all three phases did a good job at the end of the game.

Question: Lane, in the second quarter that that fourth and one conversion from Austin to Harrison Wallace really seemed to kind of jumpstart things for you guys. I know he had thrown interceptions on the last two drives. What gave you the confidence to put the ball in his hand in a moment like that?

Coach Kiffin: Yeah, we have a lot of confidence in him and just knew he’d make the plays. And they’re hard man. They’re sticky on defense. They’ve been that way for a long time. Sometimes the throw into all those zones and so really the one time you’re going to get them in man like that is short yardage. So, you know there’s a lot of risk obviously in throwing the ball down the field like that. But just something we had practiced and had ready for that spot and made a big play and Trey made a great play.

Question: You referenced this a little bit, but you guys obviously early adversity and yet you bounce back from it. What does that say about the potential of this team?

Coach Kiffin: I think it says a lot. I think it says they got a chance to be really good, because you can see in phases they’ll go right down the field and score with dynamic playmakers, and they’ll stop people and shut them down three and out. So, I think I think they have a chance. So today was a good SEC start again. Winning in the SEC is hard, but winning on the road in the SEC is hard. And so if you can start 1- 0 in SEC when they put you week two at a game, it was great. Now we get a chance to go back home.

Question: You’ve talked about this a few times already, but Kewan obviously gives your offense a dimension that it didn’t have last year. Just how much does he change what you guys can do?

Coach Kiffin: I mean, he just he’s really good, you know? And, we had Quinshon for those two years, and he’s a great running back then we went a year without it. You can see it’s hard, it’s hard in the SEC when these games, you know, kind of turn it over. The passing game is not working is great or you’re not protecting. You want to run the ball. And that was the goal today. This is kind of what I probably would have predicted, we got 48 rushes, 24 passes. Probably would have predicted that to happen in a good way. So that was really good to see. And he’s a huge part of that.

Question: How helpful is it to have a guy like Trinidad as the QB2, especially like in a spot like today, where you’re probably trying to keep the ball on the ground to run out the clock?

Coach Kiffin: Yeah, it’s it’s really great. It’s a really great pickup to have somebody like that. You’ve seen that model before. What we had here, like Plumlee and Corral, and they do it in the NFL sometimes. So it’s great to have him here. Saw it last week actually. But he went in in certain situations last week because he has unique skill set. And he was not 100% today. He was playing with an injured calf, you know, and I didn’t even know it was really bothering him more. And so I just told him, man, adrenaline is a good, good drug. So, you’ll be all right. And luckily, it was.

Question: Looked like you guys made an offensive line change kind of early in the game. What led to that? And then what did you think of of results afterwards?

Coach Kiffin: Yeah, that was by design going in. We’re just going to rotate, you know. So, I thought we were up and down up front today. You know, some protection early on getting beat and, critical plays, just like his interception. Again, you know, it’s a hard throw when somebody’s hitting you right in the face. But they did a good job at the end of the game, you know, running the ball.

Question: You guys put a lot of pressure on the Kentucky defensive line.

Coach Kiffin: Yeah I mean I actually said it this morning getting up early. I told our GM ‘man you know these road games just they feel a lot better when you have good D linemen.’.. You don’t gotta outscore people. And you know, they’re really good. And we had this great one last year and so to have a really good one again that could end in games and put pressure on the quarterback like that is awesome.

Question: Lane, what is it about Austin sort of mentally that allowed him to bounce back the way that he did?

Coach Kiffin: Um, he’s tough man. I mean, he’s tough. You know, like, he’s so mature for his age. You’ve seen him go in and strike out what was the third pick of the draft in baseball as a freshman. I mean, this guy go in against Georgia and play the way that he did. He’s built different that way. And, I wish we would have protected him better early and, you know, I think he would have seen more efficiency early.

Question: Did you talk to him? He seemed all right, physically. I want to make sure I got your words right there.

Coach Kiffin: Yeah, he was fine. He said he was fine to go back in, and he was he was throwing and I just went to Trinidad for some scheme stuff, you know, just in that situation, I’m trying basically a four minute offense.