WATCH: Lane Kiffin talks his first win over Florida, job speculation

OXFORD, Miss. — Lane Kiffin captured his fourth 10-win season at Ole Miss on Saturday with a 34-24 victory over Florida. The Rebels got big performances from Kewan Lacy (224 rush yards) and Trinidad Chambliss (301 pass yards), while their defense pitched a shutout in the second half.

The full video from his postgame press conference is above along with select quotes below.

Lane Kiffin postgame

Opening Statement: 

LANE KIFFIN: “First, I want to thank our fans. I thought that the atmosphere was electric from the beginning. Throughout our warm-ups and coming out of the tunnel, seeing it packed like that was awesome. I think players feed off of that. We had a really good start early, got up 10-0, and felt that in the fourth quarter. So, really cool. I thought the player and the student relationship, and going down there at the end, and the players having fun with students, is awesome. And whatever that makes, 35-3 or something at home if you’ve been here, if you’ve failed a few classes and been here for five and a half years now as a student. We didn’t play really well defensively at all in the first half and gave up a big pass play, but we really shut them out in the second half. I think a lot of credit goes to the players, to the assistant coaches for regrouping. And as opposed to the first half, credit to forcing the ball in front of us and just making them earn it and see if we can get them to throw us a pick at some point. So, I thought our defense was great in the second half. The offense did a lot of really good things. We left the ball at the one and the three on fourth downs down there. So, obviously, 14 points there, and we scored another time, and a lineman is just watching the play over there and gets called downfield. So, that got taken off the board. But outside of that 5-5 in the field on fourth downs and then defensively to stop them on two fourth downs, I think it’s a really huge part of the game.” 

On the student section chanting ‘we want Lane’:

LANE KIFFIN: “I mean, it was just a cool atmosphere, like I said, during the game, you know. The walk was awesome. You could just tell. So, I think it’s good, you know. Like I’ve always said, I wish our fans would be the way they are at LSU again because they hate LSU. So, I guess we got them to hate Florida this week. They came with a little different, not Mississippi nice like they do sometimes, so that was really cool. At the end of the game with the student section and Kewan [Lacy] and the whole belt thing there.”

On if he anticipates being the coach at Ole Miss next year:

LANE KIFFIN: “Yeah, I think the last chapter thing makes me feel like I’m 80 years old. I don’t like being old, so I don’t really like that part of the story. That makes feel like I’m on my last chapter. I love what we’re doing here. Today was awesome. I don’t talk about that stuff. And really, to even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and how well they played today. We’ve got a lot of things going here. Doing really well, and I love it here.”

On how Kewan Lacy eclipsed 200 yards rushing:

LANE KIFFIN: “We gave him the ball 31 times. So, you know, he’s elite, and really, I think in the second half of the season, as you look, he’s got stronger, which is highly unusual. You know, he leads the SEC, I think, in carries by far, which he might lead the NCAA now. Really, that’s unusual because he’s had wear and tear throughout the year. Really, maybe Derrick Henry’s the only one we’ve had like that that got stronger, and he carried about 90 times in the Iron Bowl and SEC Championship against Florida, actually in a seven-day span, and I think he could do something like that. He just seems to get stronger. He plays almost every snap during the game and is just a really elite player because usually your fast guys like him can’t stay durable and run the way he does between the tackles and short yardage.”

On getting his first win over Florida as a head coach:

LANE KIFFIN: “Seriously, I hadn’t thought about that, but thanks for reminding me. So, yeah. That’s why we played their song, because we finally them. Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about that. I had thought about how far our program has gone because that was our first game actually, Florida. Unless you’re talking about the Florida-Tennessee game. That was a long time ago when we lost to them. But the first game of our program here, we played Florida and we were a long ways away on the field from them. We scored late, so it looked like we scored a lot. But that day, the program’s were a long ways apart. So, you spend five and a half years here, almost six years later, it’s really cool to see where our program is. Not just in that (Florida) matchup vs. them, but just in the SEC. I told our guys this week. I’ve said it for two weeks, ‘As you get older everybody always says the good ol’ days.’ Like man, remember the old days when we were in high school and everybody talks about how good they were. And I said, ‘Hey, guys, I think we’re in the good ol’ days right now. So, I think we’re in them. I think for our fans, for our players, it’s like this utopia of what’s going on. So, enjoy it because these runs don’t happen very often anywhere. So, it’s really cool.”

On his message to Ole Miss fans who want clarity:

LANE KIFFIN: “OK. I feel like you’re a Florida guy. I don’t think we were distracted. You know, 538 yards today for an offense seems pretty focused. We’ve been dealing with what people would say has been a distraction for weeks now, including out at Oklahoma, who’s a pretty good team. So, I think it’s different nowadays. Kids think differently. They’re getting pre-portaled every Saturday night they play well from other people. I just talked to them and said, ‘Hey, that’s part of the process, man. When you guys plays really well, these things happen. Your coach gets talked about, and it ain’t the first time, first year it’s happened around here.’ I don’t think it’s a problem.”