TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said ahead of Ole Miss’ game against Washington State, including health of Austin Simmons

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin met with media Monday ahead of the Rebels’ upcoming game against Washington State on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway. Coach Kiffin was asked about the health of the team — including quarterback Austin Simmons, their bye week activities, and how recruiting is going since the win over LSU.

Here’s everything Kiffin had to say: 

Lane Kiffin: Alright, really exciting game this week. Preparation started last night with our players and walk through today. So, this is a really good challenge for us coming off of a bye to play really well against a team that is 3-2 and really in their three losses, played great defense. I think they’ve given up three, ten, 13. So basically nine points a game. And and you see in college football, you know you got to come play every week. You see it all around the country Saturday watching games. So really challenged our guys not to listen to the noise out there about where they are rankings, any of that stuff, because none of that means anything until the final one. And so, I thought guys were really good today. We’re going to continue to push them all week. And, I challenge our fans to show up. You know, I was thinking, you know, as fans, rightfully so. You know, we can’t stand when a team comes out flat or, you know doesn’t show up waits a half to start, start playing well. So, that’s what fans expect of coaches and players. So why wouldn’t we be the same? Last Saturday was electric here in the stadium. And before on the walk I understand a lot of it’s, you know, because they hate LSU, but why not show up like that every week? And, this one, an early kick, would be awesome for our fans to do that and show up the same way. Students, everybody. And, because it’s the biggest game of the year because it’s  the only game this week that we have. So let’s coach, play, and cheer the same way.

Question: Well, is this coach that’s there a Mike Leach disciple of years past. So they throw it 40 and 50, 60 times a game like years past?

Lane Kiffin: No, these guys came from South Dakota State. And coach was there a long time as an assistant before being moved up and most of their staff and a lot of their players are; they really kind of took the majority of their staff and roster and moved it over to Washington State.

Question: What does Washington State look like on film? Y’all started on them last week during the bye. Just what’s kind of been the evaluation when you break them down?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, they throw the ball really well. On defense, they’re sound in what they do. And like I said, they’ve played some really good games of defense. I think 13,10 and three points they gave up in 3 wins. You know, they had some lopsided games like the Washington game which got out of control late. And both those games, North Texas and Washington, you know, they had a lot of turnovers in the game that set up really short fields. So, this is a really big challenge for us our first early game like this. And, so hopefully we play well. We practice early every day. So you know that shouldn’t be a shock to our players.

Question: You’ve got tough ones against Georgia and Oklahoma after this in that order. But what does it take to stay focused on the task at hand, even with those matchups looming?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, it does have nothing to do with this. And, everybody has tough matchups in this conference. And, I’ve said it for a while now, and I think that you guys are seeing it, this  conference is like the NFL, everybody can beat everybody and everybody can lose to everybody in this conference. And you’re seeing it by what’s going on. And every week is a battle. And I think it’s just different than every other conference. It’s just like the NFL, you know, you got to play really well every week. And our system is different than the NFL, you know, because everything comes down to these wins and losses and getting into these playoffs, you know at that threshold of whatever it is, ten wins. And so, you got to be got to be ready to play every week and almost survive and advance in a way, in this conference. So we’ll worry about that later on. This week, it’s a great challenge for us, to play play these guys and come back after a bye and improve.

Question: Just over your career have you found anything you like to do or emphasize or change in practice, anything really, to avoid coming out flat for an 11 a.m. game off a bye?

Lane Kiffin: Well, the time shouldn’t be an issue because we’re a morning format team and our guys are up early every day and practice early. But, you know, we just try to really focus on each day individually and each game and and not worry about anything else.

Question: Yeah. We’ve asked him this a couple times, but Trinidad, what is it meant to you to see the town and the fans kind of rally around him with the flags everywhere, and I guess now a video of some kind that’s popped up over the bye week, just seeing how quickly the fan base has kind of embraced him?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think our fan base, you know, loves these stories like this. And having a number of players before, kind of with kids here and just, you know, Prieskorn and how much the community embraces the players here. It’s really awesome. Kind of as their own, you know, like, they’re kind of adopted kids coming in here.

I think the Trinidad thing is a great story. Like I’ve said, for all players at Division II, Division III, lower high schools that feel like they’re not going to get looked at that just keep preparing and playing really hard. You never know what’s going to happen. I think it’s funny, the flags everywhere. I dropped Knox off at his buddy’s house, and they have a big Trinidad flag in the house. So they got now they got songs about the island and everything, so it’s really awesome to, you know, I don’t like to kind of kill the story, but you know that he’s not from an island. You know, he’s from Michigan, his dad’s from South Bend, Indiana, and he’s been to one island in his life on a field trip when he was little to Mackinac Island in Michigan. So he’s never been around blue water, let alone sand and an island. So he doesn’t come from an island, but it’s a great story. Somebody, I think in the South, there’s a saying like, ‘don’t let the facts and details get in the way of good story,’ so maybe we’ll just run with this one.

Question: Coach, how’s the energy been from the squad coming off the bye week?

Lane Kiffin: It’s been great. I thought coming back last night and meeting, practicing last night, guys were excited. Sometimes that’s kind of a pain for players, Sunday night. And, they were excited. They got a chance to do some neat things and put themselves in place to do that. But it won’t matter if they don’t keep preparing every day.

Question: You mentioned last week how you didn’t really feel like y’all needed a bye week, but was it good from a health standpoint? Are y’all whole as you’ve been in a while? I mean, how are y’all doing from that vantage point?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, it wasn’t really that relative as far as getting players back. The rest, you know, maybe for some players that were a little bit, you know, not 100% is good. And they looked really fast last night.

Question: Kind of following up on that, I guess. We’ve asked you about Austin every week. What is his health situation coming back and is he closer to getting back on the field?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, he is continuing to get closer to 100%. He’s not there yet so this week for him was good. And, we’ll see tomorrow.

Question: From a recruiting standpoint, y’all got to spend a lot of time on the road last week. Just what was the response like out there? Do you feel some real momentum, not just in state, but everywhere you’ve gone? I mean, what was kind of like the recruiting reception you got?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think that game was really viewed a lot last Saturday, our game versus LSU and I felt that in different schools that you went in, certainly in New Orleans yesterday felt that. So those things are good, and it’s good to be relevant and it helps in recruiting, and I love it most for our fans, you know, that previously been through some tough years. And so, it’s great for them.

Question: And I had a question from a subscriber that I didn’t know the answer to, how are the game captains selected — by the coaches or by the team?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah. Good question. By me. We don’t have permanent captains. And so a lot of times, I just pick the bigger guys because I feel like as they go out there for the coin toss, like, it’s kind of intimidating, you know, and then like, put Cayden Lee out there, they’re kind of like, ‘man, these guys are little.’ So I don’t know if that’s old school, but so a lot of times I just pick bigger guys.

Question: To what extent, if at all, do you feel like Austin has a chance to challenge for the starting job this week?

Lane Kiffin: A lot as far as, you know, down the road. But again, he’s not back to 100%. And so we’ll continue to evaluate that and look at everything. And we’re in a great place. I mean we have we have two great quarterbacks. I think we have two quarterbacks that are better than a lot of people’s number one. And so, it’s awesome to be in this position.

Question: Aside from the recruiting wins, would you mind filling us in on what your bye week was like? It it seemed pretty cool.

Lane Kiffin: Um, yeah, it was. We went to, you know, different recruiting areas and saw some people in that, you know, and happened to be at dinner with Theo. And then he walked us next door and went to a concert, you know, for a little bit. And, it was pretty cool. And then, you know, we got to go to Jaxson’s game yesterday before just go to it and then come right back. And so that was really neat to see him and see his parents there and pretty exciting to see him go out there for the first play, you know, in the NFL. You know, he started the week before. But being on the road and to be there for that just really, really cool. Almost like a parent moment. You know, you feel. And it’s interesting, I was really like wanting, I was really like yelling at him to slide more than I did as his coach. You know, now that I’m not his coach.

Question: Coach, you were in that conference, you know, with Washington State for a while. It it kind of strange to you to see what has happened with all of that. They’re going to play Oregon State twice. You know, you feel like maybe it’s a program that’s had a lot of success in the past, got a chip on its shoulder?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think the whole thing is sad. You know, the whole conference alignments and especially that one. There’s so much history in that. And you know, USC, UCLA in the conference and the Pac Eight, then ten, then 12. And now they’re flying all over the country and teams flying out there and these weird kick off times. And I understand it. All these decisions made by conferences and schools are always about money. I get it. It is what it is. It’s just, I don’t think it’s good outside of the money. I think it’s bad for the kids and their travel and their school and rivalries and fans, especially that conference where everybody’s way over there and it’s just the whole thing is sad..

Question: Coach, your defense has seemingly come together since the Arkansas game and really not pointing fingers, but taking accountability for their mistakes. What have you seen from them since that game and over the bye week? Have they’ve continued to to grow, take accountability, but not only grow as players on the field, but grow as a family outside of the field in terms of building the culture as teammates.

Lane Kiffin: Well, I think after that Arkansas game, they had a hard meeting with Coach Golding and the players and for a long time on Sunday night and, I think we played better pass defense.  I also think Arkansas is really good on offense, you know, and they’ve done that to a lot of people.

So, again, I kind of look at the whole thing and not just stat rankings, kind of like how they do, you know, with the committee and records and they put teams here instead of just how stats are. We look at the analytics and the metrics. You know, there’s a really good one. I think it’s FPI, you know, where, they put the offense, defense, special teams and they rank the teams. You look at that. To me, that really shows. It doesn’t focus on records only. It really focuses on who you played in that and how you played. And was it late in the game and all those things in the analytics and the metrics. And, so I look at that instead of just the rankings, and that would show you obviously Arkansas’s elite offense.