Lane Kiffin Talks Preparation, Playoff Rankings, and Program Growth on SEC Coaches Teleconference

OXFORD, Miss. — With Ole Miss sitting at 8-1 overall and 5-1 in SEC play, head coach Lane Kiffin joined Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference, discussing the Rebels’ mindset heading into this weekend’s matchup and reflecting on the program’s continued success under his leadership.

Kiffin touched on a range of topics — from his team’s focus in practice and the latest College Football Playoff rankings, to the state of the program, quarterback development, and the defense’s improvement under defensive coordinator Pete Golding. The Ole Miss head coach also offered perspective on the team’s remarkable home record and the staff’s ability to keep the Rebels in contention year after year.

Below is everything Kiffin had to say during his teleconference appearance.

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement

Yeah, just had a great practice. I think guys are in a great frame of mind, and…You know, we are challenging them to play this like it’s the first game of the year — have that first game excitement.

So, I think they’ve really answered that practice-wise, and…It should be a great day, and… Hopefully, our crowd shows up and, we can stay undefeated at home and go to 30, 34-3 or something. It’s pretty cool. Landry and I were talking that, I guess, if my stats are right, if you’re a junior here and you’ve gone to every home game, you’ve only seen one loss. If you were actually getting another degree, and you’re in your fifth year, or maybe you just failed a few classes and you’re a fifth year senior, you’ve only seen 3 losses in your 5 years here, so… pretty cool.

Question: Hey, Coach, we had the first set of college football rankings come out last night, and you guys are ranked a spot higher than you were in the AP poll. There was so much talk about the new schedule control metric. I guess that’s been added, and they said they’ve tweaked the schedule strength as well. They talked about coaches watching film, sounds like they’ll be more subjective with the eyeball test, perhaps? Do you feel confident, comfortable with the new selection committee’s methodology and how we’re determining the playoff field?

Lane Kiffin: It seemed to be a little bit better than before, as far as, you know, strength of schedule, and how hard games have been, or where they’ve played in that, versus before, just thought, in our sport, the record is such the number one focus by far in their rankings which is very different than basketball or baseball.

And so, it seemed like it was headed that way a little more. I think, you know, obviously, if you look at it and you were saying that was the playoffs, which is not the committee’s fault, that’s a systematical fault. I think everybody, you know, when you’re sitting at 11 and 12, and you’ve worked really hard to have a really good year, and everybody says, oh, you gotta be the top 12 teams to get in the playoffs, and then you’re 11 and 12, and you’re not, and teams ranked well below you are in, that’s a systematical problem, that’s not a committee problem.

Question: Coach Drinkwitz pointed out earlier on the call, among the top three teams, that Texas A&M has a much more difficult schedule strength at this point than Ohio State or Indiana, which are both in the mid-30s. Does that raise an eyebrow from you as well, that the schedule strength discrepancy can be that great, and yet the top two ranked teams are the teams with the lower schedule strength?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, that came up because he sent it to us bringing that up, and sent us the post about that. You know, so… I don’t know enough to know, except for if you look at those, obviously that wouldn’t be how you would rank it. But… I’m just trying to get to 9-1

Question:  Coach, always appreciate the time. Given what you just said about the record at home, state of the program overall, given all the times that you’ve gone into the portal, be it recruiting as well. Overall, the state of your program right now, where do you think you are right now, in this, at Ole Miss for you, Coach?

Lane Kiffin: I mean, it’s been amazing, over five and a half years now, and, you know, since COVID, you know, like we just said earlier, 31-3 at home, and third-best record in the SEC, including the two new teams. So, I think all of us would have signed up for that 6 years ago, 5 years ago, so it’s great, and I think this year’s been kind of special, because you know, we only really returned 2 starters on our whole team. And so this should’ve been an average type of season with all those replacements, so I’m really pleased how the guys have come together to… to be in this position to hopefully get to 9-1.

Question: And part of those changes are in the quarterback room, and honestly, we were talking about Austin Simmons in the off-season, coach. How does that quarterback room look right now, and did you see this in the spring from Trinidad, this kind of potential and run here on the field, coach?

Lane Kiffin: Well, he wasn’t here in the spring, so I definitely didn’t see it. But I think that… and I’ve not studied this, so I don’t know around the country, but I think we have the best quarterback room in the country. I think Austin is a great quarterback and was playing really well for a first-time starter, and I think he’d be having a great year if he were still in there, and have all the confidence in the world in him, so I think we have two that are better than a lot of people’s, number one.

Question: About the defense, I know you said during the fall about this defense having the potential of getting to where this defense was last year? How do you think, as a whole, your defense has stacked up so far this year, Coach?

Lane Kiffin: Well, we’ve been up and down, we’ve played better as of late, you know, but we’re not anywhere near where last year’s was. But I think we’re improving, and I think we’ve done a really good job kind of scheming around the teams we played, and I think Coach Golding and the staff have done a great job. I think in general, on that, this is you know, when you ask about the seasons and being here, I think this is with only 2 returning starters, I would say that this is probably the best coaching job our assistants have done, since we’ve been here.

Question: With the change in the portal, this go-around, this first go-around, how does that change and did it at all, this recruiting cycle? I know so much of the hay is already in the barn before even it came official, but with this one portal period, how does this change things moving forward to set things up for 26 for you, Coach?

Lane Kiffin: I don’t know, that’s a lot of things that I don’t know yet, you know? Who stays, who doesn’t go, do you have guys go to the draft, who do you get, so that’s too hard to predict.

Question: Coach, how do you like having an off week before the Mississippi State game?

Lane Kiffin: I mean, I’m just trying to focus on this week, guys, and, getting this win and then play another game, and then we have a bye so, I haven’t really got to that part yet, sorry.