TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said Monday ahead of Showdown with No. 4 LSU, Including Main Factor Affecting Who’ll Be Rebels’ QB Starter

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin met with media Monday ahead of the Rebels’ matchup Saturday against LSU at Vaught-Hemingway. He was asked about what he expects from LSU — as well as how he will determine who Ole Miss’ starting QB will be for the game, Austin Simmons or Trinidad Chambliss.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin had to say:

Question: LSU’s defense was was pretty good last year. It seems like it’s really taken a step up this year. I guess from your perspective, is it them being more comfortable in the scheme? Is it personnel additions? What’s kind of stuck out to you about that group?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I think second year in a system defensively helps a lot of times. And, they’ve improved their personnel also. You know, you got three of the four starting D-linemen are portal guys. Three of the four secondary are portal guys. So they’ve done a great job with that. They’ve heavily financially invested in the portal and made that decision. That’s no secret. Coach Kelly talked about that, how much money they’ve spent. And it shows. Those are three guys that were heavily recruited and probably the three most expensive portal DBs in the market. And they got them all. So they did a great job with that. And now they’re coaching them really well. And and they’re playing great.

Question: Kind of referenced it there, but obviously LSU was one of those schools that spent some money in the portal. Do you see that that has helped their whole team offense and defense this year on their roster?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think LSU has done a great job. They’ve always assembled great high school talent, regardless. I mean, the last three coaches have won national championships there. So and if you probably look at what, 20, 25 years of players coming out, you could argue that they’ve had the most talent of anybody in the country. And you see it all over in the NFL. So you’ve always had that high school recipe of being LSU and being able to get top players in the country and keep your own home. And now you add the portal into it, which they’ve embraced this offseason and done a great job at. And as we just talked about, highly invested into it and spent a lot of money and it shows. These guys have one of the best rosters in America and also some veteran players coming in when you had portal guys on top of all the great high school players. So, it’s a big challenge. And, so we’re excited for it.

Question: You referenced this the last, I guess 4 or 5 years that you guys have played. It’s been super close games, home team wins, etc. but is that just two rosters that are pretty even from a talent standpoint, or is there something more about the matchup that makes these games come down to the wire?

Lane Kiffin: I don’t know that exactly. I would think stats would show they had a lot more draft picks, probably, over that time, but they’ve been good matchups all the way back to the first one down there, which we were ahead and should have won. And then the last one down there that we were ahead the entire game last year. So, really competitive matchup. Glad that it’s competitive because it looks like we’re going to keep playing this matchup. So, exciting for the fans.

Question: I was going to ask you about that. The permanent opponents came out today. Were you surprised at at Oklahoma being one?

Lane Kiffin: I didn’t actually know they came out today, but you have inside information.

Question: Chris Low actually reported it. You know Chris pretty well.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah. So I didn’t know that that was reported. You know, they make decisions, they put together things, and so I don’t know, whatever. I think that we’ve got to win this week and perform really well and continue to just play whoever they schedule us to play and whatever time of day and night they schedule us to play. It’s going to be highly exciting. You know, two of the what, five most historic programs in college football, you match us up with.

Question: Going up against a quarterback like Nussmeier, who’s obviously different than Greene and Retzlaff. Is there a different set of challenges, or is it basically the same thing? You have to get to him, get him out of rhythm and stuff?

Lane Kiffin: No, I think there’s a difference. Obviously not the quarterback runs like that, but Nussmeier does a great job of getting out of trouble and really quick feet and moving around. And, I mean, he saved the game last year. You know, Perkins has him to go to, what, fourth and 24 or something? And he gets out of that, you know, that probably would have ended the game. So, he did a phenomenal job saving that game last year. And really great, savvy player.

Question: With your documentary coming out this week, have you seen the finished product? Or is there a is there a watch party at your house? What’s the plan?

Lane Kiffin: No. No plan. I’m sure I’ll be here working. So, no, I’ve not seen I’ve not seen it, and so I really didn’t know that it was going to be that big of a deal. I just thought we have a lot of people come in and do interviews, and game day will be here tomorrow. Um, so, um, I guess it’s a little bigger than I thought.

Question: Lane, what factors are you considering when deciding the the quarterback situation for LSU?

Lane Kiffin: Health, for sure, to see if Austin’s at 100%. These guys are are really good. They’re loaded on defense and they’re the best they’ve been on defense since we’ve played them. Obviously with the acquisitions that we talked about, and really shutting down the run. So, we’ll have to evaluate his health and then make a decision. Today was just a walk through, so not enough to evaluate, but at 100% he is our starting quarterback. But we don’t know what percentage he’ll be.

Question: It’s like third straight game where the O-line is kind of turned the corner, dating back to that second half of Kentucky. What did y’all see on film when looking back on Tulane?

Lane Kiffin: I thought they played consistent and played well. And really the one sack was him, he ran out like a half yard short out of bounds. So, you know, didn’t have a lot of negative plays, which was good. And so we didn’t have a lot of third and longs. And that paid off. This will be the biggest test by far of the season. Like I said, these guys got premier premier players. Now they’ve added three premier NFL draft picks in the secondary.

Question: Coach, you’ve talked a lot about LSU’s defense. But turning the corner to the offensive side, outside of Nussmeier, what position group do you think holds the biggest test this weekend?

Lane Kiffin: I think the receivers, I think they got a really good group of receivers that can make a lot of plays. Um, you know, I just don’t think they’ve had the numbers that they were probably thinking, but that happens sometimes early in the year. I look at the players more than scheme when I watch things and I see elite players. So we’re going to have to play really well and be really challenged.

Question: Their (LSU) offensive line lost a first round pick and a second or third round pick. So they’re starting over with tackles this year. Have you had a chance to look at their offensive line and see what their strengths are?

Lane Kiffin: I think Brian (Kelly) said four of them went to the NFL. So those guys did a great job protecting a year ago. But you look at them again, they’re big and really good players. Like I said, they’ve done a great job. You walk by the tv copy that plays out here and they show the offensive huddle playing Florida. And it looks like an NFL huddle of guys. So, they’ve done a really good job and very typical of LSU teams.

Next Up: 

Ole Miss and LSU kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Vaught. The game will be broadcast on ABC.