Lane Kiffin: Texas A&M offense has clicked ever since Alabama

Lane Kiffin, head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, had some kind words for his opponent this weekend. Kiffin and the Rebels are set to take on Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies in a battle to stay alive in the SEC West. Both teams are currently ranked in the top 15 in the College Football Playoff from Tuesday. On Monday, during the Ole Miss press conference, Kiffin went over what the Aggies do so well and how they turned things around from their early-season struggles.

“Well I think they really figured out vs. Alabama,” Kiffin began. “You know if you look statistically, the quarterback played by far best in that game vs. some very good defense and looked great. So they been able to run the ball almost the whole year with two great running backs and really good offensive line. And we’re gonna have our hands full.

“You know we’ve had issues with the run times throughout the year, and we know. So I would certainly think Jimbo’s gonna turn around and handball off a lot on Saturday.”

In their sixth game of the season, the Texas A&M Aggies threw the College Football Playoff world into chaos, after defeating the then-number one team in the nation (according to the AP poll), the Alabama Crimson Tide. Since then, the Aggies have rattled off three more wins in a row and find themselves in a position to head to the SEC championship game, if they get some help.

Fisher and Texas A&M send a message to the rest of the west

This week, head coach Jimbo Fisher heard the noise about his team getting louder and louder and addressed that issue. In the Aggies Monday press conference, one reporter asked how he approaches things with his team being still very much in the division race?

“Don’t worry about it,” Fisher said sharply. “We got one thing to do worry about practicing and get better. The fundamentals of practice today, totally focusing on Ole Miss. You got three one-game seasons when you get to November and you are relevant. It’s a playoff. So you forget about everything else. One week at a time, one day at a time, one practice at a time, one play at a time. And it’s that simple, don’t worry about nothing.”

While Texas A&M is still in the conversation for an SEC championship game appearance, they will need a little help. They will need to win out to close the season and have Alabama lose one more time.

Both of the Aggies’ losses on the season have come in conference play. First to the Arkansas Razorbacks, and the second one to the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Crimson Tide only has one loss to the Aggies on the season.

But if they were to lose again, in conference before the championship game, that would tie them with the Aggies with two losses in conference play. Thus giving the tiebreaker to Texas A&M over Alabama, based on head-to-head.