Lane Kiffin hilariously explains how end of last year can help Ole Miss down the stretch
In 2022, Ole Miss started 7-0, getting up to 8-1 on the season before going on a four-game losing streak to end the season. Now, sitting at 7-1 in 2023, Lane Kiffin is looking to learn from last season and avoid a similar collapse.
When asked about it, though, Kiffin couldn’t help himself but make a joke about what happened.
“Yeah, to not let John report rumors we’re going somewhere will help, too,” Lane Kiffin said. “Just kidding, John. I saw you waiving your hand right before that.”
Lane Kiffin is obviously referencing the rumors that he was going to leave Ole Miss for Auburn last season. In turn, those rumors became a major distraction for the team on and off the field, even though that didn’t end up happening in the end.
Another issue Kiffin pointed out was the team struggling in the wake of the Alabama loss last season, where Ole Miss has been better focused this season.
“I’ve said before, I don’t think we handled that very well. I think the Alabama loss, we let that keep beating us, and [a] chance to go to 8-1, 9-1, whatever it was. Then, kind of fell apart,” Kiffin said. “So, two years ago we lost to Alabama and played really well after. It seems to be that we’re doing the same thing again this year, and I think that says a lot about the players and the resolve to overcome a bad game.”
Since losing to Alabama this season, Ole Miss is 4-0 and will look to keep that string of success going against Texas A&M.
Lane Kiffin opens up on Ole Miss’ success at night
One interesting thing about Ole Miss has been the team’s success during night games. Since getting to Oxford, Lane Kiffin is 5-2 in road night games in SEC play.
“Well I know a lot of analytics, I didn’t know that one, so thank you. The SEC in general, I mean I know I actually looked this morning because I get a report about the home and road, and I don’t know this for other conferences. I think that the home and road thing in the SEC is bigger than any other conference,” Kiffin said.
“I think you have dramatically really hard places to play here, and here just like Saturday night, even Auburn having a down year. I mean that was an electric place and we got major cadence issues going on in the game that we can’t hear, and it didn’t help that someone behind our bench, one of the fans, had a whistle too. But I don’t know why we’ve had success at night, I mean it’s hard in this conference.”