Lane Kiffin appears to hint at desire to stay at Ole Miss during celebration with fans after Oklahoma win
As questions swirl around Lane Kiffin’s coaching future, he appeared to drop a major hint during a postgame celebration after Ole Miss beat Oklahoma on Saturday. It looked as if he said he wants to stay with the Rebels, according to those nearby.
Video showed Kiffin celebrating with Ole Miss fans after the 34-26 victory in Norman. As he walked away he pointed toward the ground, clearly with a message to the Rebels’ faithful.
While it’s not entirely clear what he said, the fans were clearly excited amid the celebration. Kiffin was, too, considering he threw his visor into the crowd.
Ole Miss got a huge day from quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who led the charge in the 34-26 win. He threw for 315 yards and a touchdown while adding 53 rushing yards, as well. Running back Kewan Lacy had two touchdowns on the day along with a team-high 78 rushing yards. As a group, Ole Miss put up more than 430 yards of offense.
It was quite the performance against an Oklahoma defense that entered Saturday as one of the best in the SEC. The Sooners led the league with 213 yards allowed and 9.4 points allowed on average. Kiffin acknowledged the respect the Rebels had for Brent Venables’ unit, but said the message at halftime was about making sure OU didn’t get back in the game like Georgia did last time out.
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“This is a great defense,” Kiffin said. “There’s one of the best players in the country right there [R Mason Thomas]. Just really pleased how our guys finished off. We talked about it at halftime. We had Georgia down two scores and we let that one slip away, so we didn’t want to do it again.
“Got a little hectic there, but I’m actually glad we won it on defense after all the poor play last week and dealing with that all week. … Good our defense won it.”
The victory was especially important for Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss in the big picture. The Rebels improved to 7-1 on the year and remain squarely in the mix in the SEC. Additionally, their College Football Playoff hopes are very much alive. Saturday’s game was widely considered a potential CFP elimination game between two 1-loss SEC teams.