TRANSCRIPT: Everything Lane Kiffin said Monday before Florida game, including thoughts on timing of job openings and next portal window

OXFORD, Miss. — It’s finally here – Florida week. Where once Ole Miss fans thought it would just be a payback game for the one the Rebels lost in Gainesville last season, now there’s a lot more surrounding this upcoming contest. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is atop the Gators’ wish list for their next coach to replace the fired Billy Napier. The Rebels working to stay focused on winning out and reaching the college football playoffs for the first time.

One Monday, Coach Kiffin talked about his team, their preparation, how he handles job openings and more. Here’s everything he had to say:

Lane Kiffin’s opening statement:

Alright, you know, good start to the week with the walk-through and preparation. This is the next game on the schedule that presents a lot of preparation problems. They do a great job schematically, extremely well coached, defense. And, you know, they’re as talented as anybody. They’ve got elite talent on both sides of the ball. And you look at how they played at times of the year. And this is the same team two weeks ago that’s ahead of Georgia in the fourth quarter. Same team that you know really outplays Texas and beats Texas earlier in the year. So you know, you guys have heard me probably refer to like I think there’s a blackout game every year that everybody has on especially one side of the ball. And so, I think last week’s game, the Kentucky one’s an outlier for them. The Kentucky quarterback was on fire and made about every play. And, so we got to be ready to play against a team that’s really dangerous.

Question: How do you feel about the quarterback room with both guys maybe getting put in big spots?

Lane: Yeah, I feel great about our quarterback room. I love our whole system of what we do with them. And you know, actually somebody said this morning, if you think about since the helmet player-to-coach communication has come around, I think that we, our quarterbacks, have thrown for more than any anyone else in the country, more yards than anybody else. And that’s obviously three really good quarterbacks — Jaxson last year and these two (Trinidad and Austin). They just all prepare really well. I think that Charlie does a great job. And Joe Judge and Fisher with them. And so it’s just a really, really good system and they get along really well. And again, I said it last week, I think we have two better quarterbacks than most people’s first. And so that’s an awesome situation to be in. And just really pleased.

Question: Have you brought up last year’s game at all as a as a source of motivation. There’s some similarities.

Lane: No. maybe there is, you know, just because we’re ranked or something like that. But these teams are so different every year, especially ours, they have a lot of same players. But most teams are are different because of the portal. These guys are heavy high school. So, it just doesn’t mean very much. You know, we’ve got to prepare to play. We’ve got to do a better job in turnover margin. I feel like we’re kind of cheating that a little bit, you know, by outplaying teams in other areas or just better players sometimes. And I told them again today, guys, this doesn’t sustain the whole season. You know this is going to get you. We lost the turnover margin again. We lost in a number of games. And so we’ve got things we’ve got to fix. And it doesn’t matter about who you played last year or the teams and those things.

Question: Another thing I’m curious about is what are the the aspects that make up a good job for a college head coach? What’s the top of your priority list?

Lane: I wasn’t ready for that one. I think that’s evolved and changed and there’s different things in it. I said to you guys a couple years ago, I think, and this was before the cap, but I said, I think that it’s going to move to, people used to say, okay, you know, when people wanted to hire you or something and interview and what questions do you have? What are your concerns? Okay. People used to say, you know, facilities, how many practice fields? You know those things. And I said,  you know, I think that’s changed, it’s going to change, and it’s going to be how much NIL do you have? You know, when it was all collective, you know, how is your collective, how’s it run? How much do you have. Because before this, that was the salary cap, meaning that’s how much money you’re going to have.

And I know some people sometimes think, well, okay, that’s not a big deal. But just look at professional sports when it’s not the same like baseball and the payrolls and over time who wins and who doesn’t win. And somebody may have a year outlier years once in a while. And so now that’s that’s a little equaled out.

But there’s still how much are you giving to rev (revenue sharing) to your football program. And then how much do you have collective wise? I think that’s a big question. But, you know, people will talk about it’s narrowed, like I heard Coach Saban say, and some stuff has narrowed, as I referred to, because you can’t stockpile. those, whatever, blue bloods you want to call it or refer to it. But there’s still things there that you’re still going to struggle to beat those guys, because kids are still recruited and they see size of stadiums and tradition and Heisman and national championships and, and then your location, you know, to talent. So I think all those all those are in there. But it’s slid a little time over. You know, I think when that question probably early was that what is your assistant coaches pool now is what is your player pool.

Question: I know you brought it up a couple weeks ago that you talked to the team about dealing with distractions and rumors and stuff of that nature. Have you had to do that again, specifically with this game this week?

Lane: I mean, I don’t. I haven’t even talked about it to them and I hadn’t had one of them — and I think I’m pretty close to the players where they walk by or they say something — you know, like if it was on their mind, they’d they’d make a joke or something. I don’t think it is. I think that they’re very focused on what to do. Again, I said, it’s a different age nowadays, like when I addressed it a couple of weeks ago, and I certainly don’t think it was a distraction since, you know, we won Oklahoma and South Carolina, played really well last week and just said, ‘hey, this is kind of the world that you’re in. You guys now are used to this where players didn’t used to, you know.’ I mean, these guys get way more of it than I do. They get calls on Saturday night after games from other coaches talking about next year and how much money they have for them and their plans for them and their system. So, I don’t think it’s that big a deal.

Question: You kind of mentioned this in this era. What’s more important is that the the program itself, or is it the coaches that run the program? I mean, Indiana didn’t win, and now they’re winning with Cignetti. Georgia Tech really didn’t win. They’re winning with Brent Key. Ole Miss hasn’t won the way that it’s won with you. Is it the coach that’s most important?

Lane: Yeah, there’s not an analytic for that, what percentage that is. I’ve always said coaching matters. You know, kids want to go where they’ve seen coaches that have produced players that get players better schematically, like the stat we just said with quarterbacks. I mean, if you’re a quarterback out there, I would think that’d be a pretty, pretty important thing that the quarterbacks here are throwing for more yards than anybody once the helmet communication started. So I think that, you know it’s just the kid. The kid weighs it. You know they probably weigh the coach. They weigh the school. Where is it, the tradition. Do I want to live there, you know? And then what am I going to make? And every kid probably has a different scale of what their percentage is of importance.

Question: I know you’re not focused on at all, like you said a couple weeks ago, but just I mean, if Florida wants you and if Ole Miss wants you, it’ll necessitate you making a decision. I was just curious, like with the portal opening on January 2nd, do you even have time to think about that? Or how important is it to come to whatever decision before the portal opens?

Lane: I don’t know. I’m not that far down the road. I said it last week, and you guys think I was joking — or the South Carolina (week), — like, everybody wants to talk about other jobs and everything. And I think you’re 2 or 3 weeks away from coaching for your own job, so you better make sure you’re doing really well where you are. Because as we’ve seen out there, I’ve said one win puts you out of the top ten. Now, two wins might put you out of the top 25 and three might get you fired. So, I ain’t figured all that out. I’m trying to keep our winning streak, get to 8-0 at home. Shoot, and like I said, I think last week talking to Landry, it is really cool that if you’re a junior here, you know, and you’ve gone to all the home games, you’ve seen one loss. If you’re a fifth year senior, you’ve seen three losses in five years. So that’s that’s a pretty cool thing. So it’d be awesome to finish this home run for this season with our last home game here.

Question: I think just on this next game, I think Lagway is supposed to play. Just what are the challenges — even on a team that’s having a rough year — what are the challenges of going against a guy like DJ who can light it up any given week?

Lane: Yeah, I think DJ is really what the whole team is. You know, when I say the concerns, extremely talented, at times plays at an elite level and is a problem like they’re basically most of their position groups extremely talented at times. You watch film and say, man, these guys are as good as anybody in the country. And DJ’s like that. So, you know, he played great against us one year ago, and anytime you got somebody that’s got an elite arm and really hard to tackle like him and can run over you, that’s that’s an issue.

Question: I asked you last week, so I’m just a little curious now that the first CFP rankings are out, where you guys were, where the league was, were you encouraged by that?

Lane: I think in some ways a little bit. But, you know, I think some other people have pointed out in other ways. Like, you know, Texas A&M being three. What more do you want them to do to be one? Like I said, when people want a schedule and they say, ‘okay, man, we need you to schedule hard teams, you’re going to have nine SEC and then play another hard one.’ Well, they went up to Notre Dame and won. So those people that say, man, those schedules are worth it to play that. What if they didn’t play Notre Dame? They just played whoever and just had an easy win. They’d be ranked in the same spot. So what good did that do if that’s not rewarded, you know?

So they (A&M) has got the highest metrics of everybody and they’re not number one. So I don’t know. Again you talk about those two teams right there. Put them on a neutral site. Las Vegas. Who would win? What’s the spread? And that, to me, shows more than people sitting around a room just guessing.

Question: Oxford High School has a playoff game this week. Do you help Knox prepare at all, and if so, does that prep look — the same or different from what you tell your quarterbacks at Ole Miss?

Lane: That’s a better question than yours (Lane smiling). I don’t much. I stay out of it. I think Coach Cutcliffe does a great job with the team, with the offense, with the quarterbacks specifically and I just was never going to be that parent because I’ve dealt with a lot of parents like that, especially at that position. So, I try to be the refreshing quarterback parent, and I don’t even I mean, at the end of the game last week, in some situations I was like 20 yards away from Cutcliffe and it took everything not to say, ‘hey man, like run this ball to the right, right here because the field goal, you know like I don’t even do that even as a head coach. So I’m just excited that he gets the opportunity to play. They got such a cool team and they have all these comebacks. And it was just awesome to watch. And, it’s just the whole thing, it is really cool, you know, watching him. And then Landry’s, my daughter’s, next to me watching him, and she’s got a face of him and and her friends. And then — I didn’t invite them– I didn’t even know and then all of a sudden I looked down, and Trinidad’s there, and Kewan’s there. And Winnie’s there, um, you know, and then he’s throwing a touchdown to Coach Smith’s kid that they used to be little kids on the boat together back in Boca. It’s just the whole experience is awesome. We’re very, very blessed for all that to come together.

Question: Do you let yourself be Dad in those moments. Or is it impossible to get the football coach out when you’re watching football?

Lane: Well, then I was mad at the refs, but I didn’t say anything because they’re like the last play there was 10 seconds there’s injury. I’m like, this game’s over. It’s a ten-second runoff. And then, like, someone was behind me, the AD at the school or somebody’s like, ‘um, yeah, there’s not a ten-second runoff in high school.’ I didn’t know. I think I do a really good job of it, like of controlling emotions. Kevin Smith, our running backs coach isn’t so good. But it’s cool to I mean, he one time he was celebrating with them in the end zone when they scored, you know, ran there, and I don’t even high five them as they come off or anything. I try to make sure that I don’t overstep my boundaries or, you know, disturb Knox. Let him play. Let him have his time. I don’t want to overshadow anything unless there’s a wedding proposal, you know, engagements, than I do (laughing).