Lane Kiffin on avoiding 'rat poison': 'It really means nothing'

Throughout the offseason, amid his now-famous social media posts, Lane Kiffin consistently shares two emojis when he sees stories about expectations around Ole Miss. He drew the inspiration from his mentor, Nick Saban, whenever he posts a rat emoji with a skull and crossbones – representing “rat poison.”

That term is about the outside noise around a program, notably bold predictions or praising strong performances. Saban made it famous at Alabama, but now that he’s in retirement, Kiffin appears to be keeping it going.

When it comes to containing it, though, Kiffin said that’s a nearly impossible task. Instead, he tries to keep reminding his players to avoid it so the mention gets through. After all, it “really means nothing.”

“I don’t know that you completely contain it,” Kiffin said at SEC Media Days. “You just continue to talk about it, kind of like in parenting. You just continue to hit on it and hope it sticks. On the plane ride down here with the three of them, just continue to remind them about that. That doesn’t mean anything.

“Nowadays, it’s harder, as you mentioned, because it’s coming to their phones all day long. How great they are, or you’re not ranked here and you’re supposed to be ranked here as the receiver, any of that stuff. Just trying to remind them, I get it. We’re all humans. You read stuff, you start to believe it when you see it enough. You’ve got to continue to remind them that it really means nothing. It really doesn’t.”

The expectations continue to get higher in Oxford after another strong offseason from Lane Kiffin and the Rebels. Ole Miss brought in three of the top 25 players – all of which came from SEC rivals – in the On3 Industry Transfer Rankings.

Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen are both coming in to anchor the defense, and Juice Wells will step in as an instant-impact receiver. That’s a strong foundation for Jaxson Dart, who’s entering his third season at Ole Miss, but it will still be interesting to see how the Rebels fit into the new-look SEC picture with so many new faces coming aboard.

Ole Miss is also generating some buzz as a potential top team in the SEC. SEC Network analyst Benjamin Watson predicted the Rebels would make the conference championship game this year after the work they did this offseason, citing the defense as a reason why.

“This is now or never for Ole Miss. And you remember that game against Georgia last year, Lane Kiffin talked about becoming the team that could beat Georgia. He goes out in the transfer portal, he gets a great EDGE rusher who had seven sacks last year at the University of Florida, he goes and gets Walter Nolen, a defensive lineman from Texas A&M. I think offensively and defensively, Ole Miss is put together in a way that can challenge a whole lot of teams.”