Lane Kiffin shuts down question on whether Trinidad Chambliss has earned starting job

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin declined to say whether Trinidad Chambliss has earned the full-time starting quarterback job. Chambliss started his third straight game Saturday in the midst of an ankle injury to Austin Simmons, leading the Rebels to a 24-19 win against No. 4 LSU.

The QB threw for 314 yards and a touchdown with one interception while rushing for 71 yards. He’s now led Ole Miss to wins in each of his three starts as the team is off to a 5-0 start to the season.

That has many wondering whether he has done enough to remain the starter even when Simmons is fully healthy. However, Kiffin would not give an answer when asked following Saturday’s win.

“We got a bye week coming up at 5-0 and 3-0, first place in the conference,” the coach said. “It’s a good problem to have. I don’t have that answer right now and I don’t need to have it right now. “

So far in his three starts, Trinidad Chambliss has thrown for 974 yards and five touchdowns to only one interception. He’s also shown dynamic ability as a runner with 258 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

By comparison, Simmons has 580 yards passing and four touchdowns to four interceptions across two starts. He also entered briefly for two plays against Arkansas in Week 3 after Chambliss exited.

As Kiffin mentioned the Rebels have a by coming up next week before getting back to action against Washington State in Week 7. There’s sure to be a lot of speculation on who the starting QB will be leading up to that game against the Cougars as Simmons will have more time to recover from his injury.

Although Kiffin might not have an answer on who the starting quarterback will be then yet, he believes that he’d be in good hands with either Chambliss or Simmons. He also thinks it’s an enviable position to be in more than anything, knowing he has two arms he can trust.

“We have two really good quarterbacks and that’s a really good thing to have because I think you see around the country people, usually when they lose their quarterback, their team changes a lot,” Kiffin said. “Austin got hurt and we’re still able to play the way that we’ve played. It’s a really good problem to have.”