TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said after Ole Miss’ loss to Georgia

ATHENS, Ga. – The game against Georgia saw seven lead changes and 78 combined points, but the No. 5 Ole Miss Rebels couldn’t hold off a late charge from the No. 7 Bulldogs, falling 43-35 between the hedges on Saturday afternoon.

The Rebels (6-1, 3-1 SEC) and Bulldogs (6-1, 4-1 SEC) were in bitter competition for much of the game, as every drive until the late fourth resulted in either a Georgia or Ole Miss score. But the Bulldog defense figured it out late, finally frustrating the Rebel offense to two straight three-and-outs and a turnover on downs to close the game.

After the game, head coach Lane Kiffin spoke with media. Here’s everything he said: 

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement:

Alright. First off, a lot of credit to Georgia. Those guys had a really good game plan offensively and did a really good job. And you know in the fourth quarter, they made a lot of plays on both sides of the ball. And I told our guys that this is exactly what you could want, you know, you’re in the fourth quarter and you’re up two scores at Georgia with chance to beat them two years in a row.

So, unfortunately, we didn’t do things, didn’t function on offense after five drives of five touchdowns, you know, and so there was a lot of guys making a lot of plays during those drives, offensively. But I mean, that’s just a formula to not win. Usually you would think you’d get blown out if they score every time they have the ball and you (let them) have 34 first downs. But when you’re in a game like that, if those happen, you just got to keep scoring. And we didn’t do that in the fourth quarter.

Question: Lane, was there one thing defensively that gave your defense the most fits, or you guys just couldn’t get off the field against them.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I thought Gunner (Stockton) did a great job keeping plays alive and made a lot of plays with his legs. And it really wasn’t one thing — they really kind of did everything there. And we did limit explosive plays. There weren’t a ton of explosive plays, but it was a slow death. 34 first downs. I mean, that’s hard to do against a service team.

Question: How do you think Trinidad handled his first FBS road start?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think he handled it really well at the start through three quarters, played amazing. You know, five drives, five touchdowns. I’m sure he’d tell you that when they finally stopped us three and out, he’d take back that first play to Dae’Quan (Wright) when he’s open on the corner and throws a little short.

So, but it’s just really disappointing. You could feel good that we’ve come a long way from where we were two years ago in this room, (that) feeling from playing these guys. But you got a chance, man. You’re undefeated and you’re up two scores. I mean, that’s like how better can you draw it up? And we’ve got to coach better in those situations and make the plays. And those guys made some really significant plays, man. The receiver on the fade ball. And they made some really big plays when they needed them in the fourth quarter.

Question: You mentioned the play with Dae’Quan so open. Did he just underthrow it or something happened there that impact the pass?

Lane Kiffin: No, I think he just, you know, we all have bad throws and, it’s really a crazy game too, because, you know, if you go back to we’re ahead, they have the fourth down at midfield. They run the fullback a little dive and we got him stopped. Like what happens at that point? Now we’re ahead. Now there’s some momentum. We finally stop them –and then he goes through our tackles. And great job by him keeping his feet moving and makes the first down.

And, I really felt that point was a really almost a slow motion moment of like, okay, this is the moment here we have them. We stop him here and this game really, really is headed a good direction and they made a play.

Question: On that sixth drive, was there a moment for a second trying it?

Lane Kiffin: No, it actually was about if I remember six through that drive because the way the game’s going, that fourth and six, even back there, you would. But it was fourth and ten, I believe. It was just those analytics aren’t real good. And just hoping, hey, we could stop and get one stop, you know, because it does happen sometimes. You know, those type of games. We’ve all seen both teams score. Both teams score, and then all of a sudden, neither team scores for a couple series. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Question: Lane, their games against Auburn and Tennessee they were outplayed for three quarters or so and trailed similar to tonight. What was it about them that they keep coming back?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I think I’ve said it. I said it all week. Kirby does a great job. I actually said it this morning on GameDay. Got it from Coach Saban, you know to install belief like ‘hey we’re going to find a way.’ And when you play Alabama before or now Georgia, these two coaches I feel like you have to win the game. They’re not going to lose it at the end in the fourth quarter.

You have to win the game. You know that’s why we were aggressive. You know the fourth down little reverse. You know I’ve got a note in my pocket that said ‘hey, when you get up and you got a chance, man, you got to go for it. Don’t kick field goals. Don’t get conservative.’ And so we tried to stay aggressive.

Question: Obviously you guys go back on the road next week and it’s a two as in pro terms used to be like ‘hey let’s get one of these two out.’ How quickly do you guys have to turn the page to home.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, that sounds good. Now get one of the two. Um, yeah, it does feel like the NFL. Like, here comes another, you know, hard, really hard place to play, against the top defense in the country. So that’s going to be a really big test. But we got a lot of things to fix. We got to play better on offense in the fourth quarter. And, obviously, defensively I mean Georgia did a good job today. But that’s not the number one offense in the country, you know, and 34 first downs is really concerning. That’s a lot of things we got to work on.

Question: With last week the focus being so much on energy, do you think that was better today.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I thought we handled the wave of the stadium the early on. I thought we were extremely calm in big moments. Trinidad, everybody, even when things weren’t going our way or we’d score, you know, they weren’t these massive celebrations because I told them before, like, expect to score on this defense. Expect to make big plays. We have a really good game plan. When you score, just come back over and get ready to do it again because we’re going to need a lot of it. And we did for five series, you know.

Question: What was the message to the guys in the locker room?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, it’s just disappointing. It’s disappointing to have a shot like this, you know, to be up two scores, as I keep saying, in the fourth quarter against Georgia at Georgia and undefeated to go to 7-0. I mean that’s kind of one of your lifetime moments, I told them. And it’s right there. Or we’re sitting here in a very different you know, we make one significant play in that area there and we’re sitting here saying, man, what what a great job coming in here and great job by the guys. You know, getting up early on them and and finishing off Georgia to go 7-0. And we didn’t. And again, credit to them that they made a lot of significant plays in significant moments. Whether it’s a receiver catching the ball, whether it’s you know, we have the third down route before that fourth down decision where, you know, we throw to Trey and there’s a guy right there and man with no safety. And guys made a lot of plays.

Question: How do you help your guys overcome it on the long side of it?

Lane Kiffin: You know you just gotta see the opportunities that you had and when you’re in them again, I told them, we’ve been ahead, well shoot now, we’ve been ahead of everybody we’ve played by like basically two scores and we didn’t close some out, let them drive down and make them one scores in these previous games. And I kept saying we’re going to play better teams and you can’t keep doing that. And unfortunately that happened today. We’re up two. Let them score. We don’t score and they go score. So those things come back to bite you when you play. And you know a place like this with a team like that and that staff.

Question: You talked during the week the next step for the program was to get a win on the road in a place like this. Did you learn anything about your team today, or did they kind of validate some priors?

Lane Kiffin: I mean, I just learned that that we didn’t finish when we had a chance to. You know, and that’s me too. Maybe we should have ran the ball a little more there in the last couple drives, you know, and take the pressure off Trinidad. But this isn’t like this statement game. I think somebody asked during the week, is this a statement game? You know, like, well, one team’s beat them there in five years, you know. So it’s not like because we lost to Georgia in a one-score game that we were ahead of two scores, you know, now all of a sudden our program has got to be revamped and relooked at. So if you want that feeling, spin back two years ago when we were sitting here, and they played like that on both sides of the ball against us. And we had to really, really change some things in our program.