Everything Lane Kiffin said on SEC Coaches Teleconference Wednesday, including facing ‘the hardest defense we’ve played’

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke with media on the SEC Coaches Teleconference Wednesday. The Rebels’ head coach talked about the upcoming matchup with Oklahoma, what is involved with a Brent Venables-coached defense, the college football playoffs and more.

Kiffin was not asked anything about potential coaching vacancies for which he has been mentioned.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin had to say.

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement:

Good week of practice so far. Extremely challenging game. Obviously (Norman) is one of the harder places to play in the country and then adding to that what I think, really, in our six years, is the hardest defense we’ve played. (It’s the) most disruptive and hardest defense we’ve played in six years. The numbers back that. They’re No. 1 in the country in a lot of categories. Got a combination of really elite, quick, fast players with one of the best defensive coaches in all of football for a long time. They’ve got it really rolling.

Now they’ve got a really good offensive system, coordinator that does a great job and an elite quarterback. Pretty good combination, especially at home.

On what the Rebels learned from the loss to Georgia:

You’ve got to finish games off. We’re up by two scores late in the third, actually have them stopped on fourth-and-1, and the guy keeps moving his feet and we don’t finish the tackle. We were going to have the ball up nine points in their territory going into the fourth quarter. You’ve got to finish things. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done up to that point in the game. Obviously we hadn’t played well on defense. We played well on offense. You’ve got to keep playing and keep doing things.

Kind of said that earlier in the year — that we couldn’t finish games like we liked. Up two scores, actually, in a number of games. Ended up being one-score games because we didn’t finish them. I said when we played better teams, it’s going to get us, and it got us.

On what he feels are the differences between a defense coached by Kirby Smart and one coached by Brent Venables:

They couldn’t be any more different. They’re both awesome at what they do and get players that fit their schemes, but they’re completely different. Brent runs every defense ever invented. Kirby doesn’t run as many things, tries to be really good at what they do. Obviously both philosophies work, especially when you get your players and get them right after a couple of years like he has there.

They do a great job of overall, everything. Playing plays. The signal thing, that’s a compliment. Part of your job is to ready your players all week for the plays that come and then try to figure out on game day what they are. They do a great job. Coach (Venables) has talked for years and he’s done this for a long time. He’s always been one of the elite information-gatherers during the game. That’s a better term.

On the possibility of having five SEC teams in the playoffs:

I’ve said that all off-season, and it has nothing to do with us at Ole Miss. They (playoff committee) really need to be much more based off of analytics because there’s not enough non-conference games in the system we have to show. As you look at baseball, basketball, what they’ve done, records is just part of a system of figuring things out.

I think, yeah, the best 12 teams, you can’t at all start thinking it’s this many from this conference, this many from this conference and this many from that conference. If you want to get the best 12, you can’t think that way at all. You’ve got to take the resume, everything — look at how they played, where they played, all the things — and pick the best 12. Not say, ‘Well, we have this many from this conference, so that’s enough,’ if you want to do it right. That’s not what they do in baseball. That’s not what they do in basketball at all.

Football’s the only one that’s still doing that; you saw last year. If you know anything about watching football, the best 12 teams are not in the playoffs last year, and I’m not talking about ourselves.

On whether he thinks the committee will use those metrics

I don’t know. They’ve said they’re going to, but we’ll see.

On the two QBs, Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss and Oklahoma’s John Mateer

I think our quarterback (Trinidad Chambliss) needs to continue to protect the ball like he did last week. He has most of the time he’s played; very few turnovers at all. Continue to work on accuracy with the throws and play like he did the first three quarters last week on the road.

This is the hardest defense you have to play, not just because of the great players, but the style that they play. You’ve seen them just shut people down. The South Carolina game, there’s three minutes left in the first half and Oklahoma, I believe, has been on the field 40 series so far and given up one touchdown at that point. Think about that for a while. I mean, that’s just amazing.

Their quarterback (John Mateer) is really elite, getting healthy. Amazing that he even came back as fast as he did. Does a great job throwing and running. Very competitive.

On what he would say to the committee:

First off, I’m not even thinking about that. You ask me a question, and I’m going to answer it. It’s not because I’m thinking about it. It’s not any of that. You’re asking it.

I’ve mentioned this before. What would Vegas do? They’re the best at what they do, by far. Way better than any committee, way better than anybody could. When you look at teams, and you’re saying this team or that team and comparing them, if it was a neutral game, what would Vegas make the spread? That should tell you who the better team is.

What would Vegas make the spread? And if you had to bet your own money, your kids’ college funds, committee, who would you bet on? On a moneyline without the points?

To me, that tells you a lot. Who would Vegas make as a favorite when you’re looking at the teams on a neutral site? That would be the best way to determine who the best teams are. Vegas doesn’t go, ‘Well, there’s already this many from this conference, so this team probably shouldn’t go.’