Lane Kiffin explains apology to Clark Lea after late score in victory over Vanderbilt

Ole Miss made plenty of bettors happy on Saturday when it stayed aggressive in the final moments of a 52-28 win over Vanderbilt, scoring a touchdown with 18 seconds remaining. But the score, which provided a late cover for the Rebels against the 17-point spread, left coach Lane Kiffin apologizing.

Kiffin explained his apology to Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea during the handshake at midfield after the game, noting he let game circumstances get away from him.

“Sometimes things happen during the heat of the game and you don’t really feel great about it,” Kiffin said. “I think even our players get mad at me. I probably should have taken a knee there, and I told him that.”

So why didn’t Kiffin simply kneel on it to close out the win?

Turns out it wasn’t anything to do with Las Vegas or point spreads. Instead, receiver Jonathan Mingo was on the verge of breaking the school’s record for most receiving yards in a game. Of course, that probably won’t make Vanderbilt feel much better; the previous record had been set by Elijah Moore against the Commodores just two years prior.

Regardless, that was a major part of how things played out.

“I wanted to explain the Mingo thing, because upstairs they told us he needs one yard to have the school record, so they said that at the beginning of the series,” Kiffin explained. “Really we’re just trying to throw him a hitch and tell him to run out of bounds, and they clouded it the first two times. That’s why we threw him the ball there at the end.”

Mingo managed to catch a 9-yard pass to bring the ball down to the Vanderbilt 3-yard line in the waning moments, breaking the record and giving him a 247-yard outing, the best for any receiver nationally in a single game this year.

Lane Kiffin apology also prompted by desire to reward a player

On top of the record-setting attempt for Mingo, Lane Kiffin’s apology was also necessitated by his desire to reward one of his hard-working players.

The Rebels ended up giving a carry to freshman Matt Jones from the 1-yard line, and he punched it in for the game’s final score.

“Matt Jones has been like special teams player of the week like four weeks in a way, or service team player of the week, so we moved him up and brought him on the trip,” Kiffin said. “Kind of got caught up in that, but didn’t really like how it felt.”

Regardless, there’s your explanation for Ole Miss’ late-game score. Lane Kiffin’s apology has been issued, and both teams will look to move on from here.

Ole Miss is set to host Auburn this weekend, while Vanderbilt will travel to Georgia.