Everything Lane Kiffin said after Ole Miss beat Tulane

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke with the media Saturday after the 45-10 win over Tulane in Oxford. Here’s everything he had to say to reporters.

Opening statement: “That’s a really good win. Tulane’s a good team, really good program, well-coached, tackled extremely well. I think if you look at their games, that usually doesn’t happen when teams play them even, went to Oklahoma last year and tight game there. Proud of our guys in all three phases to come out and play like that. I think 45-3 then last touchdown, 45 -10. It’s challenging to play that well because a lot of people around them want to focus on the next week and probably a Top 10 matchup next week with LSU. Proud of how they answered because I’ve been in those games and you’ve seen those games where they’re kind of flat, struggling and some SEC teams lose to a team in a conference like that. I’m just really pleased how they performed and in the defense. After a tough week of a lot of criticism, which is extremely fair by how we played last week, to answer that in the style that they did, there’s three, maybe in a row, 4th down stops, which are basically turnovers. When a team’s in 4-down situations, it’s hard to stop them. It’s a lot easier when they’re going to punt. So just really, really happy how they performed.”

On Trinidad Chambliss performance and on if Austin Simmons was available: “Austin was available today, yeah. I thought Trinidad played great. I love the most important thing, not turning the ball over two weeks in a row. If you do that, you win a lot of games. First offense didn’t turn it over back-to-back weeks and he played really clean. No balls on the ground, one sack. We had one last week. So back to back weeks, when you just don’t have negative plays, and he carries the ball 14 times, only loses two yards. Has the one sack, everything else is positive and rushed for 112. So what, 419 total, in three and a half quarters is really good against a defense that’s stopped a lot of people.” 

On Ole Miss WR Deuce Alexander: “We knew Deuce was explosive. You could see him in a wide open offense to make all those plays where we can just see what he did in their system. He’s been doing that all camp, making plays like that. Just made an emphasis really saying, alright, we’ve got to get more touches to him. Because even there was a run where they had him bottled up and he makes the first down. Sometimes with receivers they can disappear and not get many touches if you don’t go out of your way to get them touches.”

On Ole Miss beating Tulane without any drama: “Really relieving, I know this for me, for our fans. It was because we really didn’t need another one of those type of games. I think in this conference, you’re gonna have a lot of them. I’ve said that this model is set up that the SEC bottom is gonna be really strong, so you’re gonna have a lot of hard games, eight of them, and then nine starting next year because the portal and teams may be down there, they’re gonna fill the voids. Used to take maybe two years to get out of there, out of the bottom. So this was good to have against a team that normally doesn’t have a score like that against them.”

On if Austin Simmons will start if healthy: “Yeah, I don’t know that. Like I said, Trinidad played really well. Austin was playing really well before he got hurt. I don’t know where Austin will be exactly. He was available, but he was not 100 percent. He would have gone in today if we needed him. That says a lot about Austin, too. He got himself ready to play again this week.”

On Ole Miss defense adjustment to Retzlaff: “I think our guys played assignments really well. Obviously, that was a huge emphasis because you’re going to see the same plays that you had stopped the week before. So a lot of emphasis on the quarterback pulling it and how to play that. Then we let him out in the long run, and we had him get scramble spy it. Suntarine package for him that I think worked really well after —screwed up initially — but that was a really good game plan against him. That’s what you expect from him, Pete Golding. They may get you the one week, but you’re gonna go back to work and perform like that the following week.” 

On Ole Miss offensive line play: “I thought it was good. I thought there was not a lot of negative plays, which is good. Same in the run game, so you can stay ahead. We didn’t get penalties. Think we had maybe one offensive penalty, maybe five yards. So that didn’t give you some bad situations to have to overcome. That had a lot to do with not having 4th downs, ended the game 7-of-11 on 3rd downs, I think.” 

On evaluating the Ole Miss culture and team right now: “Yeah, every year is new, especially in this portal era. You got to redo everything every year now and rebuild your culture because you just don’t have enough of your roster back. I commend our building before that. Kyle and his wonderful stats, told me last week, first time being 3-0 five years in a row since Coach Vaught. That’s a lot of years of starting really well. So I think that has a lot to do with having really good camps, players buying in to perform well during our season.”

On having K Lucas Carnerio: “Yeah, it really feels good. We had a really good one last year and to have a good one again. There was a long field over there early. Actually, analytics said to go for it. We still kicked just because I felt so confident in him and wanted me to get a score there.”

On Ole Miss defense: “Yeah, we didn’t have defense like that around here, what happened last week, really since the Georgia game two years ago. So that was a hard one. Staff, players took it hard. We had a special meeting with just coach Golding and the players Sunday night, no one else in there. Spent a long time together, talking about getting it right. What are we gonna be on defense? Are we gonna have the standard play like we did a year ago? Are we gonna revert? So they really answered the call today.”

On Ole Miss-LSU game being at 2:30: “I’m over that. I told the commissioner here, we’re going to play LSU here and it’s gonna be a day game. We’re gonna go down there and it’s gonna be at night. Just know what it’s gonna be. So is what it is. I’m sure we’ll be at night at Georgia, too. If you set it up that way, you won’t be upset when it happens.”

On Chambliss coming into the team in the summer and doing what he’s doing: “Yeah, I think that says a lot about Trinidad, Charlie (Weis) and Joe Judge, both staffs (Ole Miss/Tulane) had to do this because their guy was late, too. For Trinidad to play like this says a lot on him. That’s a lot of preparation to get somebody ready because Austin was definitely our starter. Trinidad had to do a lot of mental reps, a lot of time in the office, just going over things just in case and being ready and preparing like a starter.”