Everything else Lane Kiffin said on this week's SEC Teleconference ahead of Tulane

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin had his weekly appearance on the Southeastern Conference Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday, previewing Tulane and fielding other questions.

Kiffin during his 10-minute window he revealed there were no hesitations by him regarding Trinidad Chambliss and coming from a Division II-exclusive playing experience.

Here is everything else he said during the call.

OPENING STATEMENT

Kiffin: “We’ve had a very physical week of practice, which is needed against this team because these guys play really well. They’re coached extremely well. Shoot, they’re like playing an SEC team. Highly explosive quarterback, dual threat, defense that tackles extremely well, plays really physical. Their scheme is great. It’s been proven over a number of places and coach (Jon Sumrall) knows how to win. He’s the fourth-highest winning percentage of any coach right now. I think that’s Ryan Day, Dan Lanning, Kirby Smart and him.

So, A lot of respect for him and how they coach. So, we’re going to have to play really well and continue to play really well.

ON TRYING TO STAY MENTALLY FOCUSED EACH WEEK PLAYING IN THE SEC

Kiffin: “Well, Kirby and I have talked about that a lot and I think that is really something that’s not given much credit to and understanding. Then in the rankings, it’s like the NFL. Every week. Different than the NFL, if you go 10-6, 9-7, you make the playoffs. Okay, good job. That’s not what’s happening in this conference and as you go to nine games, it’s getting more of that.

There’s a coach in this conference, I won’t name, that came from a difference conference and said, ‘Man, now I get it. It’s totally diffrerent where I was in that conference before that’s considered really good, but we really only had to get menatally cranked up three times a year and deal with intense road games on top of that.’

So, it’s totally different and my issue when it comes to the evaluation of putting people into a playoff system from a committee, no offense to any of them, but you don’t understand that and how different it is. Espcially as you go to nine games. You’re going to have some really good 8-4, like really good 8-4, teams that might lose four one-possession games. And you’re going to have (teams) that are better but you’re not going to know that because you’re going to have these other conferences go 10-2. So, whatever. That’s down the road but that’s coming.

As you add another conference game, there’s even more of that. But, yes. Kirby talked about it. It is a grind and I’m not complaining about the work part. It’s grind on the kids to be able to get up (for each game). It’s why you see, in my opinion, these games happen where that team’s not really up and here’s an upset where they’re favored by 17. Like, how can that happen? Well, it happens because they got a bunch of these.”

ON IF HE DOES ANYTHING TO TRY AND HELP WITH ALLEVIATING THE MENTAL CHALLENGE

Kiffin: “Yeah, I mean, I hope that the way we run our program helps with that. Our players, I think, have a lot of fun and joy coming here and practicing and working and I think you see that if you watch a game, TV copy, how our players are. I hope that helps some with that, but if someone else said it this week like (Smart) talked about taking some off of their practices because of the grind, playing Power 4 team. That’s for SEC teams. That’s the grind playing SEC teams. Every week it’s real.”

ON JON SUMRALL EVENTUALLY BECOMING A SEC HEAD COACH

Kiffin: “Told the staff yesterday, I said, ‘I feel I’m going to be in head coaches meetings in the conference, I think our first one’s in January, coach Sumrall.’ So it’s funny you bring that up.

Yeah, I just think his teams are really disciplined. They play really hard. They tackle really well and he’s got a really good fundamental defensive system. And he wins.”

ON SIMILARITIES HE SEES BETWEEN TULANE AND TROY WHEN SUMRALL COACHED THERE

Kiffin: “There’s a ton of similarities, except now they got a super explosive, good quarterback. There’s actually a lot of similarities of Troy to Tulane two years ago even though (Sumrall) wasn’t there because the defensive systems overlap of coaching there and scheme. So there’s a ton of similarities between Troy and that Tulane game, defensively, and then now this game.”

ON HOW THEY DISCOVERED TRINIDAD CHAMBLISS

Kiffin: You know our personnel people watch a tone of people and then they bring people to me and so then I’ll sit and watch a bunch of them and they’ll watch a bunch of quarterbacks and he came on and I said, ‘Wow, this guy’s really special and unique.’

There actually was a moment, it was like with Cam Ward. I watched Cam before everybody knew about him, who he was, and I said, ‘Wow, we got to get this guy. This guy’s really electric.’ Brought him on an official visit. Actually, he was committing here, then Washington State had hired his coach and up the money and he went to Washington State last minute. Him and Jaxson (Dart) were both going to come here, actually, together. Think about that. So in this situation it was similar to that of, ‘Wow, this guy’s really unique, special quickness, ability to release the ball.” I just thought it was really important to add him, even though I felt great about Austin.

I tell our staff, look at those examples all the time. There’s one in our conference that lost their quarterback last week and look at the difference in the game. The year before with Florida. How differently they were until they got (DJ) Lagway back. It’s like playing a whole different team. I’ve said to Oklahoma, Texas, you know, the 50-0 game. Texas beat Oklahoma because Oklahoma doesn’t have a quarterback I’m just really happy he’s here.”