TRANSCRIPT: Everything Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said after Rebels defeat Oklahoma, 34-26

NORMAN — Ole Miss football earned a huge win on the road Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma, defeating the Sooners, 34-26. It was a complete-game win for the Rebels, with offense, defense and special teams coming up huge.

After the game, head coach Lane Kiffin explained how proud he is of his team and their effort, what it meant to bounce back after the loss to Georgia, the play of Trinidad Chambliss and much more.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin had to say:

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement

Alright, so you know, first, credit to Oklahoma for playing a really hard game. Those guys, that’s a hard out. And to come in here and get them with that quarterback that keeps so many plays alive, and is healthy now. There’s a reason those guys had beat everybody, you know, except the Texas neutral game. So, proud of our guys.

You can’t predict things, but I just talked to them at length last night about overcoming adversity in games in a season in life. Used some parallels, kind of personal things, with them that you really either you can get knocked down and everybody says you can get up  — or you can get up and get stronger when you get up.

And so I said to them, you know, we were up two scores last week at Georgia, where they never lose, except Alabama. And you know, we didn’t finish it off. We got knocked down. And so if that same situation happens today on the road against a top 12 team, number one defense in the country,  can we be stronger in those situations, especially defensively?

So for that to happen was really cool because that don’t always happen in coaching where you say something and it happens. So it was cool that it did — and you know, we obviously should have ended it there on offense. But you know, it happened how it was supposed to happen. And we went back on defense and were able to win on defense, and really a defense that shut him out in the fourth quarter. So it’s a 9-0 nine nothing fourth quarter for us on the road, where last week it was 17-0 the other way. Very different fourth quarters as a team.

So this was a big win. This was hard. And, you certainly didn’t want to go on the road and lose two in a row before you come home. So, obviously we’d love to be undefeated but I think a lot of people at the beginning of the year said if you would have won all the ones at home and split these two, you know, you’d be feeling all right. So, proud of our guys.

That’s an elite defense, elite players, elite coach, you know. They’ve given up (an average) of nine points a game coming in and their only loss was Texas. And (Longhorns) they had the punt return. So… they really scored 16 or something on offense against them. So, you know 34 points today, two by the defense, that’s a heck of a job by a lot of people. So good to be in this spot, 7-1, and go home and play at home for the rest of the year.

Question: What does it say about this team, not just to be able to bounce back within this game, but to bounce back after last week’s heartbreaker and all the distractions and all these sorts of things? How did you guys manage to tune everything out and do what you did?

Lane: Yeah, I think it says a lot about them, and I ain’t that coach… I can’t stand when coaches win a game and then all of a sudden (say) ‘we got everything figured out and we can overcome everything,’ and then they lose and then we can’t figure anything out.

So I just think the style that we won, it wasn’t like there was just a missed field goal at the end or something. A lot of people did a lot of really good things today in that game. Offensively, defensively and then special teams. For Trace (Bruckler), a tight end, to force a fumble like that was awesome.

So I think it says a lot about them because when you have had something happen to you previously in a season, let alone seven days ago, and that same feeling comes back today, (it’s like) here we go again. We’re ahead, alright, the game’s kind of in our control. Oh wait. Alright, now they’re scoring a lot easier. We’re not moving like we were. (It had the) same Georgia feeling and the crowd started coming alive. And then obviously much different response by us. I didn’t feel like they ever kind of freaked out. And they had each other’s back.

You know, we’re going to coach extremely aggressive. We believe in our players, and it’s not going to work all the time. And you get criticized when it doesn’t. We go for the fourth and one, and it’s a bad snap. You know, the run is going to be there. And they get the ball on whatever that is, the 25 yard line or something, and our defense holds them to a field goal. So they got each other’s back today when when things didn’t go well or when they made some explosive plays on offense. Because it really was, we made them big-little. We gave up some explosive plays, but it was much different than last week. 14 first downs we gave up (today). We gave up 34 last week (at Georgia).

Question: The 11-play, 75 yard drive to take the lead in the fourth quarter, I mean, obviously that was critical. Was there something about that drive that gave you confidence that you guys were going to be okay, given how the crowd was kind of getting into it and taking the lead?

Lane: Yeah. And against  the best defense in the country at their place and that’s when they come alive, man. You know, yeah I felt good because the guy taking the snap every time, the quarterback (Trinidad)…look, I’m never going to sit up here and say (it was due to) “Man, this was this perfect game plan.” Those guys bring blitz zero a lot and they do a lot of different things. And this quarterback (Trinidad) helps you a lot when you don’t block everybody. So he made some huge plays in the game.

Question: You mentioned Trace Bruckler, I mean that’s a guy that wasn’t heralded as far as transfer from New Mexico State. How has he come along having a touchdown and then, like you said, making that play on special teams, making an impact in that way?

Lane: Yeah, I think that’s how this team is. I kind of felt coming into the year like we don’t have maybe as many elite guys as last year, you know, or they’re younger, like Kewan and Winnie. So you’re going to need these wins. You’re going to need close wins. Now what? Every game has been one score, right, it feels like. And you’re going to need guys to make significant plays. You know, Dae’Quan (Wright) was very limited today in what he could do. I actually tried to take him out. Not that it was a medical non-clearance thing, I just felt he was playing with a major injury today. And you know, he just put himself back in. And so it’s really cool to have guys like that. We live in a world that they ain’t all like that anymore. They start listening to agents and their draft status and they sit out as soon as they got an injury. So really cool by him.

Question: It feels like we ask you about Kewan all the time, but on days like today, he’s just a workhorse for you guys. What did he do today? And what does he just mean to your team.

Lane: Yeah. He hasn’t had the giant yardage numbers the last two weeks, versus really good defenses and hard defenses to run the ball on. But there’s hidden yards in there that are so critical. You know before the half, he’s on that left sideline and he makes, whatever, probably five or six extra yards which gets us down to maybe like the 2 or 3, you know. And then we run the goal line run that he scores on. Well, if he didn’t get those extra yards, he can’t do that. You know he can’t get to that package. So there’s a lot of plays — he almost ended the game on the first down play — where he made eight and then we couldn’t make two yards on two plays. But he’s really elite and he took care of the ball. That’s two weeks in a row on the road against really good defenses, where he had zero turnovers, one combined sack. And that has a lot to do with him in protection too.

Question: What things do you have to think about when you’re deciding to put Austin in, and how do you feel like he played today?

Lane: Yeah, Austin missed the pop throw. You know, there’s some schematical things, like, especially with this  head coach we were playing against (Venables) that there’s some mind games going on — not mind games, but just chess. And Austin’s got talent, and so he just missed one today where we had a schematical open touchdown. And I thought his throw was fine on the two point (conversion attempt). We dropped it, you know, or else that’s very different at the end right there because now we’re at ten instead of eight.

And I think, too, it’s hard to prepare for. Everybody plays the other way. Everybody over time played the other way, like here’s the better thrower, necessarily, is what people would say, you know, whatever. And here’s the guy that’s more dual threat. And so they they put in the runner, you know, like as a change up. Well, why wouldn’t you do it the other way too? So even though we dropped one of them today, he misses one today, that’s hard, especially when they’re both in there, too, sometimes, it’s hard to game plan against, I think. Ask them (OU), I bet they would say it’s challenging.

Question: And just kind of immediate post-game thoughts. How you felt Trinidad did in a second straight kind of hostile environment?

Lane: Yeah, I thought he was great. I thought he was the example of what the team did, where it was, here it goes, the same thing. And he makes some really good throws, you know, like he makes the corner route throw and they’re kind of at the same time where he started to where he missed a corner route last week at Georgia. Different coverage, but, you know. And then we trust him, we trust our player. We run a very unique double move to Winnie Watkins because of the way they were playing, and they’re very aggressive and they take away a lot of things. In my opinion, the only way to play against them is you’ve got to take risks and you’re not going to have a high-completion percentage day against them. But you got to take some risks. And we did that. And that was an example where Winnie and he made a big play.

Question: The defense came off of not forcing a stop at all against Georgia last week, but had a safety today, a turnover on downs and made Oklahoma punt a couple of times. What kind of changed in the way they executed today?

Lane: I think that we didn’t make as many mistakes. You know, we made a couple, but you know, last week Georgia made some really good plays. But there were a lot of times we weren’t making them work. The guy’s just open, you know, and blow a coverage. And these guys had to work a little bit more for it (today). You know, obviously when you talk about giving up 34 first downs last week to 14 this week.

Question: Princewill (Umanmielen),  was this more of the kind of what you were looking for when you signed him. Made a real impact today. He was just filthy (his uniform) after coming off the field, tied for the team in tackles and sacks. Just how disruptive is he?

Lane: Yeah, it was great. He actually had another sack of the guy right there. He missed him, but that that was much needed and obviously when you rush it helps the coverage and you just talk like, ‘hey, we need him to step up and be like that,’ especially because we know what it’s like on the other side.

Like this week, they have to play against these guys constantly throughout the game, just concerned with negative plays happening. Sack caused fumbles, like what these guys do to other people — they had ten sacks in a game this year, you know. And so we game planned a lot around that. Today, they had one sack. Now, they could have a couple other, you know, and Trinidad bailed us out. But you know, it’s really good that that Princewill and some rush showed up today.

Question: Lane, at the end of the game you went to the fans and threw the visor. Thoughts on the traveling fans and your thoughts about this road win in totality?

Lane: I just think now….I don’t like to say I’m older because I don’t really like to be old, but I told them last night, ‘as I get older, guys, I just want to tell you things that I didn’t do and stuff, you know, that hopefully you do different.’

And, I just was always (in the past) like, we go win these games and everything and get back to the locker room and it’s let’s go get on the plane. And I was like, you know, just enjoy the moment. And these are hard to do, they’re hard to come by. So everybody’s going in the locker room. So I sent for them to come back out. I didn’t have a plan — just hey, let’s go down there and say thanks to the fans, but also enjoy the moment, man. You’re in a iconic stadium that just won a million games here and you did something really special.

So, take in the moment — instead of just always getting to the next thing. It’s kind of what I did with my whole life, and so I just tried to help them with that.

Question: You guys obviously have put yourselves in a position now by winning today, I mean, everything’s kind of in front of you. You kind of control your own destiny. Is it going to be difficult just to get guys to focus on one game at a time and not think about all the playoff picture discussion that’s coming in the next few days?

Lane: I don’t think so. Just because that’s not even our language. Whether it’s right or wrong, I don’t talk to them like about that and playoffs and where you’re ranked and any of that stuff, I just don’t. That’s just my philosophy. Never have — actually I did when I was younger and it’s been a lot of years now. I don’t talk to them that way because it’s just about staying in the process. And, you know, that probably was (a result of) going to coach for those three years for Coach Saban in learning that. You get caught up in all that noise, and he says ‘rat poison’ versus just none of that matters. What matters is getting better in these individual areas so that you finish off games like this.

Question: Lane, you had that moment with (Oklahoma defensive lineman) David Stone at the end of the game. For yourself, just the emotions of being in this moment, can you reflect on the moment of you walking off this field with an SEC road win in a place like this.

Lane: Is that number zero?

Media: Yes.

Lane: That’s just me. I mean, he was talking the whole game to me, and I did a good job, I felt, not talking back, and he just kept telling me, we ain’t going to score and all this. So I didn’t go try to find him, he was just walking by. So I just saw him. So that’s just kind of me. Guy’s a great player, man. You know, I’m sure he’s really enjoyable to coach.

Question: Coach, you talked about only one sack in the last two games for you for your Ole Miss offensive line. You mentioned before the season started that you really wanted to see a turnaround from your offensive line unit. What have you seen with them? What has made them successful this season?

Lane: I think they’ve just done a good job coming together again. Now, Georgia gives you problems, and these guys (OU) give you elite problems, man. They give you more problems than anybody I remember in six years. Because if you don’t play the game, you can’t play too safe and then you ain’t going to go nowhere against them. But if you don’t, if you aren’t conscious of their scheme and all the zero blitzing and number 32, zero now, like if you’re not conscious of where these people are, you’re going to have some games like you’ve seen some other people do this year against them. So it’s a really good job by the line of helping us and taking that game plan and and limiting negative plays on pass plays, which these guys have just, you know, thrived on especially third and fourth downs.