TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said after 38-19 win over State in Egg Bowl

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke with media following the Rebels’ 38-19 win over Mississippi State Thursday in Starkville. Kiffin took questions on a myriad of topics, but most of them had to do with his future plans and whether or not he would be leaving to take the job at LSU.

Here’s everything Kiffin had to say: 

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement after Egg Bowl win

So you know what an awesome day, just to watch our players at the end. And I told them last night, as you get older and you get joy from others, especially your children, which players a lot of times are similar, and I just wanted them to get to 1-0 today. So just like every time we’ve been in the stadium and you watch them go over there to the fans with the Egg Bowl trophy and be able to celebrate, that alone, just, you know, winning the Egg Bowl. And then on top of that for them to, you know, win 11 regular season games. And we talk a lot about how Coach (Pete) Carroll used to say, you know, ‘do things better than they were ever done before.’ And they just did that.

And no one, I guess no one in the entire state’s ever had 11-win regular season. So that’s pretty cool. Especially in the SEC, it’s has never been harder and deeper than it is now. So, um, that’s an amazing accomplishment by them. And, you know, I know the storyline about distractions all week and stuff. And, I would just say and I wanted to say during the week, you know, we build our teams differently. So what you may think is distracting, as I understand our fan base or media, I don’t think it is. And we train our guys from the beginning when we get them and build our teams to focus on what they can control and block out noise.

Shoot the last game at the last place, FAU, we played our last game there that morning.There’s an announcement, you know, that we’re coming here, actually. And, you know, we’re in the conference championship that day, so our players know next year, and we go out and win 49-6 in the game. So I think we just train our players that way. I wasn’t concerned this week and they’ve been doing it for a month, you know.

So, I would say maybe what, you know, we teach our players and our staff that a lot of times what you think might be really bad might be good. And so maybe you should think the other way that all that distraction and all the noise outside bonds them together because they know their team, their coach, their coaches. And so they don’t worry about that stuff. And everybody says, well, they’re going to be distracted, they’re not going to play well or, you know, they want to they should want a different coach. I think it bonds them together to stay focused and and to play really well. And I’m not the coach for those — You know, we got a lot of people here today but the ones that cover us, you know, if the field goal goes in at the end and you know you just win some game or get some call by a ref, I’m not one to say that that means you played extremely well that day. Our guys played well probably 24, 10 or 13 run. You know, once we get that last touchdown at the end of the first half, and if you’re distracted you don’t have zero negative plays the entire day on offense. Not not one play. Not a sack, not a turnover, not a negative run for a yard. That’s players executing really well and doing great. So really happy for them.

And it’s a heck of an accomplishment. They did something no one’s ever done before. And and they did it in a really good style today. Played clean football.  I kind of said at halftime our programs are built different. You know, we build players to execute and play really well. Like we say, we want to make Sports Center for making good plays, not trying to make Sports Center for starting fights. So, you know, that was disappointing earlier in the game. But I was really proud of our players, how their players all left their bench, including their AD, and our players stayed on our bench, you know, like they are coached to do so play football. And they did that today.

Question: Lane, Keith released that statement last week saying that there was going to be announcement by tomorrow on your future. Have you made any sort of decision yet?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I haven’t, um, maybe that surprises you. But I guess, you know, I gotta do some praying and figure this thing out. I know today I can get to that tomorrow. I live life about one day at a time. Maybe that doesn’t help you, but I’ve learned to live that way for about six years now. Five years, and that helps me. So today it’s all about these players performing really well and keeping this Egg Bowl trophy where it belongs.

And then, you know, tonight I’m gonna go be a dad and watch the more important game to me and watch Knox play in the North state championship versus Tupelo tonight. So Coach Cutcliffe Senior, you know, he was on the sidelines last week, his son’s the coach, in case you don’t know. And you know, he walked over. He’s like, man, isn’t this, like, harder than, more intense than than being the head coach in the game? I’m like, no it’s not. But it’s more enjoyable. So I’m excited for that tonight. I mean, Fisher Ray, one of our assistants, said a couple of weeks ago. Man, he’s like, if this thing played out, man, you could be 11-1, win the Egg Bowl on the exact same day if they kept winning that Knox would be playing in the North State championship. It’s awesome day and I’m very fortunate I  have a lot of really good things in my life, thanks to God.

Question: Do you plan on making a decision tomorrow?

Lane Kiffin: I feel like I got to.  Not as enjoyable as people probably think it is, but, you know, like Kirby says, you know, when he wants to complain about being in the national championship, missing the portal window. He’s like, there’s no crying from the yacht. So I’m not trying to get pity, but it’s not as enjoyable as maybe some people would think.

Question: Does winning today and making the playoffs make it more difficult to leave?

Lane Kiffin: I think it’s difficult no matter what. I think that there is a relief that we played like I thought they would today. I did think they would play like this but you never know. And so I am relieved for that because if we didn’t play well today, we all know what the storyline would be. It’d be my fault for having them distracted and stuff. So I’m really glad that we proved that that narrative, which is a fair narrative for people to write, and I think a lot of our fans felt that way this week. Understandable. But they don’t know our room and they don’t know how we train them and how they think.

Question: After the game at one point, it looked like you were admiring the Ole Miss crowd. There was a lot of powder blue in that side of the stadium. What was going through your mind in that moment?

Lane Kiffin: Just over the years, you know, and then like, just really cool, that’s the, what, third time we’ve been here? Third time emptying out their stadium (as their fans leave early), you know. And then watching Matt Corral do it, you know and that that game. And then Jaxson Dart and then watching Trinidad carry that trophy.

And I’m like just I said that when I said to him, man like this just gives me so much joy to see them be able to do something like this. And so to watch these guys come together, like they came from everywhere. I mean, I should probably know this, but I bet you on offense we don’t have any players that play from the state of Mississippi. Think about that. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think we have any. So that’s a different story that you have to have in-state players to win. But think about that. So they came from all over the place to come together to do this, to win and then bring joy to all the fans, which are from Mississippi mostly, I assume.

It’s just a really cool story and you can’t get a better story than Trinidad. The guy’s in Division II playing in front of 500 people. And today he goes for 359 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, no sacks and some critical runs in a rivalry game that records don’t mean anything when you go into them. They’re not going to come out flat today and they never do. And so, you know, and they they did a lot. They brought blitz zero at them a ton of times, you know, and tried to hit the big plays. And a lot of times they just held as you saw. But Trinidad did some really good things today.

Question: Lane, has there been some frustration over the last couple of weeks? I saw your post game incident right before you went into the locker room, and it just seemed like you were a little bit upset about some things that have come out over the last couple of weeks, or how things have gone the last couple of weeks.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think, you know, I understand your guys’ job and I think things are fair. You know, like I say, when questions come, those are fair questions. Maybe I can’t answer them. Maybe I don’t see them the same, you know. But when you when you call someone a hoe, that’s a different level of stuff, you know? ‘Can’t make hoes and housewives,’ you know, or something like that. That’s just that’s. So that’s about as bush league as stealing Trinidad’s jersey like Mississippi State did last night. You know, luckily we had another one. So I ain’t got any respect for that.

Media: I don’t either, but that wasn’t the comment. The comment was, ‘you can’t turn a hoe into a housewife. Hoes don’t act right.’ It’s not calling you a hoe. It’s about commitment. And that’s what really the question is. You wanted a commitment from people asking you about where you’re committed to, and you’re still not doing so. So you don’t think there’s anything wrong with getting upset about something so innocuous as that? Paying attention to after a win, especially in the Egg Bowl?

Question: What’s the most difficult part of the decision that you have to make? Is there one one aspect of it that you labor over the most?

Lane Kiffin: There’s a lot into it. And I don’t, you know, it’s a hard decision. You guys have them all the time. You got to make decisions about jobs you take and where you move and all those things. And again, we get paid a lot so I understand ours is, you know, under a different spotlight and scrutiny. But, a lot of people that are critical of it are the same people that they do it all the time. They make decisions. And, they got to figure out the best things to do. In other professions, it’s a little easier because you get to go to places and they they bring you there and you go for a weekend and you see all the schools and neighborhoods and all the stuff, and then you make the decision. You know, our, our jobs are more difficult that way. But I’m not complaining about it.

Question: Is there a certain number of people that you rely on that you can call as you’re going through something like this? You said you were going to be a dad tonight. Yeah. Later tonight. Probably had to make a decision in the morning. I’m not asking you to give out names, but do you have a group of people that you can rely on for something like this?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I do. You know, I miss my dad. You know, I really missed him this week. And so, you know, my two calls will be the closest to that from advice that what my dad would say to do on these things. That’ll be Coach Carroll and Coach Saban. So, kind of wish when you had things to do in life that your dad was there, but that’s what it is.

Question: When the polls come out on Tuesday, do you think this team is deserving of a College Football Playoff hosting option?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I would think absolutely. I mean, you go 11-1 in the SEC and you know, you’re — and I’m not politicking — I think that should be an obvious, hosting the game. I think depending on what other teams do, you’re in that conversation of are you even up there even higher? So, Yeah I don’t know how you wouldn’t be hosting a game at minimum 11-1 and your one loss, you’re ahead by a couple scores going into the fourth quarter at Georgia. Hard place to play. So, I would certainly think that — I wasn’t even planning on politicking because that was that would be a given. And we could have a whole different narrative here of, you know, Texas and Auburn win their home games, two really hard places to play, man. So maybe Texas wins today and we’re all watching the Iron Bowl and we all know in Jordan-Hare magical things happen. So maybe Jordan Hare sends us to the SEC championship. Maybe, maybe maybe it’s because in the past, maybe we’ve taught D.J. Durkin and Nick some things, and then now maybe it’s going to help us. You didn’t think about that.

Question: You said you got to make a decision tomorrow. Can you narrow it down for us in terms of time frame? Are you talking about in the morning, the afternoon? Evening. What is in your mind in terms of time frame?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, very fair question I don’t know. Or maybe I should, I don’t again, I don’t. Maybe crazy with all the attention on it. I’m happy for our players. I’m going to go watch my son play. Layla already sent Cookie up here to say, ‘can we get going? and I’m like, well, we got to go do media.

Question: So do you have any reason to believe you would be allowed to coach Ole Miss in the playoffs if you took another job?

Lane Kiffin: That’s not my goal. I wouldn’t know that.

Question: Lane, you won the Egg Bowl for five of the last six years…..

Lane Kiffin: You kind of forgot about that in the last ten minutes.

Question continues: Thank you. Coach. I was going to ask, what does it mean to have the trophy in your facility for another year?

Lane Kiffin: It’s awesome to keep that here. And you know, I love we had Tom Luke speak to the team. Like I said, during the week, like we always do. And it’s my favorite speech. You know, he talks about if they gave him a maroon free SUV, he would still never drive it or get in it. And so it was cool to bring him up at the end. And he talked to the team, too. Um, so it’s awesome. I know how much it means to so many people in this state. So regardless of maybe the week not going the way they wanted to, our fans get to brag for another year that you pretty handily beat Mississippi State again.

Question: Would you have believed in the end of the 2020 season that you would win 50, your program would win 50 games over the next five years? If someone had told you that, what would you have assumed that would have meant?

Lane Kiffin: Oh no, that’d be awesome. So where do we sign up for? I think all of our fans and Everybody would sign up for that. Again it’s not just a line, that’s a lot of really good players doing things and buying in. That may not be a lot of high draft picks, but that’s a lot of players buying into, you know, the betterment of the team. Because we’ve seen these teams. Everybody wants to say, well, okay, you just go build through the portal. But that Don’t always work. I’ve seen plenty of portal teams not work, especially once they lose some. So these guys have come here over the years and really bought in and played for each other. And, it’s cool. Today you saw that left and right.

Question Whether you’re here or not — Did I cut you off? —whether you’re here or not, how big is it that this team has won their last five going into the playoffs?

Lane Kiffin: I think big, back to committee question and stuff like, you know, how are you finishing? You know, how are you playing at the end? And so, you know, maybe like I said, maybe you can spin it the other way, say, hey, what a great team. And everybody thinks they’re so distracted with all this stuff, you know, or says, you know, they’re not going to be able to play well in the game, you know, and then they do for like you said, whatever, five wins in a row and shoot, since the tunnel in Oklahoma, you know, we’ve dealt with fans chanting things and yelling things. And so I think it’s cool. You know, it’s just like winning on the road, man. When you go and everybody says this is going to happen, it’s not going to be this way. And then players overcome and do that and play really clean football. So it’s it’s really neat.

Question: Rick mentioned how, Lane, that was probably the most powder blue he’d seen in the stadium, Davis Wade, ever before. What did you think of the fan base and the way they showed up and, you know, stayed until the end and the belts and everything? It just seemed like a good turnout for Ole Miss fans.

Lane Kiffin: It was awesome. I noticed right from the beginning I always kind of look at the crowd when we’re on the road and see if they’re full for their people and then for ours. And I’ve turned around a couple times to notice that, and I think it’s awesome when that happens. You know, much like the Tennessee game here. You know, um, when they came here that just I think that affects the other team. And when you see and you look up and you’re like, man, they got all these fans here in our stadium. So it was awesome. And um, glad that we were able to give them a good feeling because I can’t imagine that drive back would be really good. And then whenever you play an early game on 11 a.m. on Saturday, let alone a whole day early or the Thursday games, they’re like, there’s so much difference between winning and losing  because your whole weekend is affected by that. You got to watch these other games, man. Why didn’t we win that game? So, um, I think they’re going to, you know, I would hope be in a good mood. Now you get to go watch other people, you know, play games.

Question: It seemed like you and Zach Selman kind of got into it for a second. Did he say something that you thought may have provoked what happened there in the first half?

Lane Kiffin: No, no, I don’t think Zach did at all. I was just saying to Zach, first of all, I didn’t know why the athletic director was out on the field, but that’s irrelevant. I just said to Zach, this is what we talked about with the officials before the game, like we train our guys not to have this. I know it’s been in the past. Maybe I’m wrong and maybe people don’t like that I don’t want our players fighting because that’s what used to happen here. And when I got here, I trained our players. We ain’t doing that.

I know there’s so many highlights over the years, and that means that you’re so great because you punch the guy and stuff, but that’s not how you’re supposed to play football. It’s not in my opinion. My opinion, I told our players all week, I want us to go execute really well, let them punch you, let them hit you in the back, and then they can have that and they can have that clip and put it on their highlight film someday, how tough they are. And you just keep beating them and dominating them. And so I just said to Zach and that like, this is what I’m talking about. Look at your team. Your whole team is out here during the game trying to fight, and our team’s all standing over there.