TRANSCRIPT: Everything Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin said after 49-0 win over The Citadel

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss dismantled The Citadel, 49-0, Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway in what was a complete team win in all phases of the game. Afterward, head coach Lane Kiffin met with media to discuss the game, players who stood out— and even the proposal that took place on the field.

Here’s everything Coach Kiffin said:

Lane Kiffin’s Opening Statement

All right. Really pleased how the starters played today. Those are challenging games to really get up for and execute the way we did — I always think first downs tell a lot of how the game is going and how guys have prepared — 35 to 5 first downs. There’s a lot of guys doing things really well. So guys really answered our challenge that it was the first game of the year and no other games matter and come out with that same energy regardless of crowd, network, time of game, any of that. And they really did. I wish our backup offense would have done better, but everybody else, including the backup defense really had a really good day.

Question: I guess first, did you ever think you’d be part of an on field proposal mid-game? And then second, did you see what you needed to see from the first team offense, particularly from Trinidad?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah. I didn’t know I’d be part of that. But, you know, these things happen here in the SIP, you know? So, I actually said after on the headset, like, maybe they were mad, actually. Maybe they were like, why did you come in here? And someone on the headset said, no, no, it’s Mississippi, they like it. So that was cool, that was just really I didn’t know what was going on at all. You know, and then happened to notice it, and someone on the headset said it and so noticed up there. So that was really cool. And then how the crowd cheered for them. That was neat. And Trinidad, we really challenged him to say, okay, let’s play really efficient today. Let’s not try to go for big plays. And, you know, let’s have a really good day — not stat wise for stats, but efficiency wise which you can show in stats obviously 29 of 33 with a drop. You know, I thought I thought he did really well. Obviously our plan, as you can probably tell now is we’re going to throw it around, not run him to really get the timing of that, get our receivers, some touches and so worked out really well. And I thought Austin had some really good throws. You know, Cayden (Lee) lost that one in the sun. But that was an elite throw that he made. So that was good that he got some action in there.

Question: Kewan’s (Lacy) three touchdowns ties the single season record. You’ve talked a lot about him. But just to get that accomplishment for him, what does it say just about the work he’s done this year?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, it says a lot. Just a true sophomore and ten games in. I didn’t realize that. But, you know, to have the record, our offensive line has done a really good job this year, really improved from the beginning of the year. And he’s an elite runner and probably would have had a few more today if we’d have left him in.

Question: How much can a complete performance like today help moving forward, next week against Florida and stuff. Like I know it’s different level, but how much value is there in a team pretty much doing everything right?

Lane Kiffin: A lot. You know, that was the challenge, and you guys have covered us. You know, these games don’t always go like this. Like people think they’re going to go, especially later in the year. A lot of times they do early but not later and guys come out flat. And I think we played them in 2005 here, and it was a close game and then had to score I think 21 second-half to go 27-7. So these things happen where these guys hang around and then nobody feels good about it afterwards. And so just talked a lot about that all week. You know what is your standard? Is the standard the standard regardless, like I said, who the team is, what network is on, how many people show up in the crowd? Do you need that stuff to play really well or are you an elite competitor that none of that matters? And they answered that today.

Question: Kind of following up on that. Do you like where the game (against Citadel) was scheduled at this point, the back half of the year, and you’ve got two conference games left?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah, I think the schedule was amazing the way it was set up and, obviously Keith allowed that to happen. And so it’s a really, really good setup that I think nowadays is different. You know, everybody’s want them up front and, you know, work things out on their team. And, you know, you got this portal era and how kids think. And to be able to play a number of kids at this time of year plus the SEC is so tough. Rarely ever do you see an SEC lopsided game. So you got a lot of players that don’t get to play and so to have one here where we’re able to do that in the second half, they come more alive in practice, it allows your play counts to come down on your other guys. So I think it’s really good and not wasting any time, but, you know, one of the other problems with going to nine SEC games, is you’ve only got three. And so this was a really good setup.

Question: Are you worried about any of the guys that got nicked up, like Dae’Quan and William Echoles? And then when Dae’Quan went down, a lot of run for Caleb Odom, who had a good day. Luke Hasz got in there, made some big plays. What have you thought about that tight end depth. Does it got a chance to shine?

Lane Kiffin: Yeah. We have really good tight end depth. It’s a great position, better than we’ve ever had here. We’ve really not had depth like that at a position here really in general. So offensively. So that’s been really good. We’ve got good depth receiver wise and so it allowed us… Dae’quan could have went back in. His x rays were fine and just chose not to. And same with Echoles.