TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said Monday ahead of Ole Miss’ game vs. The Citadel

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin held his weekly press conference on Monday as his Rebels prepare to host The Citadel. The No. 7-ranked Rebels are 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC. Last Saturday, Ole Miss defeated South Carolina, 30-14.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin had to say:

Lane Kiffin’s opening statement:

All right. You know, we’ve got a big challenge issued this morning to get better this week. I thought we’ve gotten better in some areas the last couple weeks. And so really, we talked about really focusing on ourselves, with walk through today and then two really physical practices the next two days to improve. And, we got a lot of work on,we gave up an explosive play and a couple other passes that they missed that, that were open. And we had a really poor day in the red zone and third down. So plenty to work on. These guys (Citadel) are very disciplined team that they make you be really accountable on defense with unusual system that we’re not used to. So, you know, really trying to focus on really getting better and improving and maybe looking at different ideas to.

Question: Kam and Jayden got SEC player of the Week honors. Just obviously Jayden’s a veteran of that group.but what are you seeing out of Kam in his second year on that side of the ball.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think that that’s exciting. He just said that walking in that that happened…those guys deserve it. You know, we made a big emphasis all week about playing physical and winning the line of scrimmages in this game. And Kam did a really good job. And Jayden had a really hard matchup. That’s one of the premier players in college football. You know, a lot of times those guys usually play on your left side. They play him on your right side. So he had a big challenge and really answered the call and really played a great game. So that was great to see those guys be recognized for that.

Question: We talked a lot about, Kewan’s explosiveness in the off season, but did you know that he was going to have that break tackle and contact balance ability, when you got him in the portal, or is that kind of surprised you?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I think we knew maybe not to this extent. We knew the speed and the size ratio. But also, you can’t predict how guys are going to improve or plateau. And a lot of that is once they get there, how they work. And he’s phenomenal in preparation. We say it in here all the time, very low ego, which is refreshing at that position. And he just wants to get better. And, he’s had a great year and needs to take care of the ball. The ball was a little loose. Almost came out. But he’s doing a great job and really doing a great job in pass pro being pass protection is very physical.

Question: I was wondering, real quick, now that it’s Monday, has there been a fine hit your desk for throwing the ball? Did did Sankey get to you?

Lane Kiffin: He did not. You know we actually had a conversation but he did not bring that up. So I don’t think that’s a policy or rule. But again, I was excited for our fans, for our student section,  They were there early, two hours before. And, it just means a lot to, to our players and to see that and their energy and they’re standing the whole time, you know, because when we watch our film, we watch the end zone view, so we see the end zones all day long as we’re watching the game film and, they’re amazing. And so, you know, I know it was a penalty those guys going and jumping. But it was just really cool. I think that you know our team is a really neat team. It’s why I say I would hope the games would sell out and people would show up because I understand sometimes teams aren’t that exciting to watch. I think we’re really exciting. And I think our players play with a lot of passion and so it’s pretty neat.

Question: And what can you tell us about The Citadel? I don’t know much.

Lane Kiffin: Like I said, really disciplined team. Defensively, they’re multiple anddo different things. Offensively, they really present challenge of you know your keys in the run game and they do a really good job.

Question: You probably don’t want to answer this because you don’t want to jinx it. But your team in the mid November here is I guess close to mid-November is pretty healthy. What do you attribute that to? I’m sure some of that is luck, but is some of that maybe what you guys do in the off season and that kind of thing?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I think you guys know I don’t come up here and just say, ‘yeah, we do this well’ because coaches want to sound good. I don’t think that has to do with off season. I do think part of that is luck. You know, um, with injuries in each year, it just happens. Sometimes you have better years, just like you have calls from the refs. Sometimes they go their way, sometimes they don’t. I do think we in general stay pretty healthy. I think people would be really surprised — I’m not going to go into detail — but people would be really surprised how how little we practice compared to a lot of traditional college thinking programs.

Question: That’s something you talked about this over the years, but is that something that you sort of picked up on elsewhere? Is that something something a thought in the back of your mind that percolated over the course of your career?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think that’s just a lot of things combined in there. Like  I said, I take a lot from Coach Saban. I don’t take that. That doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong. I just see things differently. You know, there’s probably something in there, too, I think, when, like how I told you guys all the time, I really believe all the things that happen to you happen for a reason. If you’re paying attention. And I think going to FAU, you couldn’t practice. If you did you were going to run out of your good players fast. So that’s really where I started this. Okay. We’re just going to play really fast, but we’re not going to practice near as much. Just for the wear and tear on the players. And so that’s probably where I really started in that direction. And then getting here, again, like I’m with you guys in honesty, when we got here, didn’t feel like we had a lot of great players. And so if you get them hurt, you’re going to go here to here. You know, that’s easier to do at Alabama. You can afford some injuries. So that’s part of it too.

Question: This question goes to that energy atmosphere environment. Y’all get one more night game next week with Florida. I know you’re focused on Citadel, but just thoughts of getting to end the home season at night with that crowd.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah I think that’s great. That’s awesome to have another Saturday night in the stadium here. I think coaches a lot of times are whiny. You know, we’re whiny and we complain about things, but then when they go the direction that we like, they don’t say anything. They just want to complain. So everybody can, you know, point to that. But we had a I mean, I sent the commissioner in that conversation and sent a message, you know, because I owe him a fishing trip or something for this year. You know, four road games, not at night. Three of the four at home at night this year. So, I think that’s awesome. I think, you know, our analytics we go off of as after Covid because you didn’t have crowd noise then and stuff. And I think, I think it’s 61% of SEC night games are won by the home team. So, that’s why I’m kind of always hoping hoping for that. So I think that’s a really good slot. Again, it’ll be about how well you play, but I can’t imagine it’s going to be really warm. So as much as I don’t like that, it probably favors us versus the opponents’ players and what they want to play in.

Question on what happened regarding South Carolina’s play they made where Nick Harbor made a big play:

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I can see why you wouldn’t know because he was that open. That was really disappointing. We were in drop eight, cover two, which should be a dead play. In that and really unfortunate he was in the slot, which usually means a shot play. And we were yelling and they didn’t hear us. So, that’s really unfortunate. You know, that should really be a dead play. And that’s why I was really upset with it because great throw, great catch. But we handed them that by just not staying deep where we were supposed to be in the middle of the field.

Question: What about getting better against the pass as the game went on?

Lane Kiffin: Well, I thought that we did do better. Probably. It was obvious if you go back and look, we just went because Golding knows a lot of the plays in the press box, and he says them and I’m like, well, okay, that’s great. You’re telling me what the play is and the coaches, but they don’t know out there, the players. So I just said kind of like maybe in high school or little League, you know, little kids. I said, hey, when you know it’s a shot, let’s just all start pointing up and everybody back up. And so I know this is a complicated profession and the SEC coaching, but we just pointed it up and our guys backed up.

Question: Are you paying attention to tomorrow night (CFP rankings come out)? Not just for you guys or for maybe the rest of the league is in terms of maybe assigning how much strength of schedule, the strength of league is being weighed into that equation this year.

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I really hadn’t thought much about that. This isn’t coach speak. I really don’t, you know, because it’s still so early and so much left to play. I hadn’t thought about that, but probably that would be the part — I’d look less about where we are and more of that just to see, okay, are they actually going to pay as much attention that we were told they are going to now? And that was part of our going to nine games in the SEC was, you know, being told that this was changing and it was going to matter who you played and where you played and the environments and how hard the games are. So, you know, we’ll see. So that really would be really disappointing. And I know I’m in the SEC, but I mean just as a college football person you know if that doesn’t matter, now we’re going to go to nine. You know that would be really unfortunate. And I just hope they get over the way that we’ve thought in football for so long how they’ve thought, because the other sports think this way. You know, baseball, you know, they, they don’t say this many from this conference and then all of a sudden you’re going to the whatever the postseason and college baseball and you see half the teams are in the SEC, you know, so you know, the College World Series. So that’s how our sport should be too. And I’m not saying that just because of the SEC. There might be yours that that’s the Big Ten. Maybe, but it shouldn’t be based off of it. I don’t think there should be any automatics at all. If you figure out who the best team is, if you can’t figure it out, ask Vegas. They know. What would they? I’ve said it before. What would they make if it’s you two against each other, these two teams, put you on a neutral site and ask Vegas what the spread would be, and that would be who’s considered the better team.