Everything Lane Kiffin said ahead of Ole Miss vs. Tulane

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin recapped the win over Arkansas and looked ahead to Saturday’s matchup against Tulane. Starting with Sunday’s Zoom call and finishing up with Monday’s press conference, here’s everything he said to reporters.

Opening Statement: “Think the biggest thing off of slowing down with the film and the situations was just really wish we would have closed the game out. After watching the film, the plays are there to be made, especially when we’re up 10 with the ball (on 2nd down) and really wanted to go to 17 to make it a 3-score game and kind of put it out of reach and we don’t block the right guys on the 2nd down that’s going to score a touchdown, which forced us to kick a field goal there. I really wish we would have done that and it’d be a much different feeling to the end of the game going up 17 there. Don’t like that part and then don’t like letting them go down and score a touchdown after kicking the field goal. Really good play by TJ (Dottery) on I think the 74th play of the game and he had played all 74 plays so really good example for our players to keep playing. Never know when the play is going to be, but got a lot to work on. Could’ve played a lot cleaner with penalties and situations and obviously, we struggled in the first half defensively with some assignments and missed tackles as well. Thought we settled down and obviously a much better job in the 2nd half. The 1st half was kind of wild.

“They missed the field goal and then after that, there’s eight drives with eight straight touchdowns and I think four of those drives were less than two minutes. Kind of a crazy start to the game and both teams punt the first possession of the 2nd half. It’s good to get an SEC win, but don’t want to overlook that we’ve got to play better in some areas in order to keep winning. This is a really, really good team coming here that I think should be ranked with a great head coach and staff that we’ve played before. They do a great job schematically on defense, they play really hard and they tackle really well, which is kind of a lost art in college football, in my opinion. I have a lot of respect for them, how they play and how they coach. I actually remember seeing them later on after we played them here at Troy and he (Sumrall) told me the story after the game, I didn’t know this, my dad never told me this, but my dad went down to their locker room to wait for him afterwards to tell him how well his team was coached and how well they tackled on defense that day when we played Troy. Kind of cool story he shared with me so a lot of respect for them. They got two Power Four wins already.”

On Trinidad Chambliss’ performance for Ole Miss: “I think probably interesting enough, you know, the TV copy plays on the TVs here the next day always. I think just kind of walking by that and even though I’m down there with him, just seeing how composed he was and how confident he looked like you’re watching on TV. I thought I’d be like, man, this guy’s a veteran starter here in the SEC. So I just thought he was really composed in the moment and he played like that too and took really good care of the ball, which is really big. You can have no turnover games, like I say and be lucky. Two fumbles and they bounce back to you or you throw it to them and they drop two interceptions. This was a really clean offensively ball game, and a lot of that had to do with the quarterback.”

Discuss Lane Kiffin’s comments with other Ole Miss fans on the Rebel Grove message board.

On Austin Simmons injury: “I have not seen Austin yet today. I’ve just been up here with the film and watching, and doing the next opponent. So, I don’t know that. As you saw, I re-aggravated it. So, I don’t know that yet. I’ll know more here in a little bit.”

On if Simmons would’ve been available: “If we had to go to somebody I wasn’t based off of how I walked out of the locker room at halftime with him and he just looked like it was really struggling and so I don’t think I would have put him in.” 

On AJ Maddox and his development: “I think he’d do a really good job. He showed a lot of really good things in practice since he’s been here in scrimmages. So we have a lot of confidence in him. I do think I didn’t see Austin today, talking to the doctors today and x-rays and I think Austin’s gonna be fine.”

On making the change with Charlie Weis, Jr. to Chambliss: “A lot (goes into it). Charlie does a great job. I know a lot of people around here don’t think that and he takes a lot of criticism and heat and I don’t really understand that. Last year, coaches Jaxson Dart to the first round, All-SEC quarterback and set a lot of records and did a great job last night with a new quarterback. Really kind of calling a very different offense than what we had shown in the first couple of games. So I think Charlie does a great job. For whatever reason, sounds like a lot of people don’t think that. Think somebody showed me that we continue to have the most production of any offense in all of the college football from when we got here till now. So I think he’s doing a lot right to have that. I’ll also say this, like I told you on other things, we must be at a really good spot at Ole Miss football that we have a lot of complaints about the offensive production and what it’s been since we’ve been here. So, must have changed something.”

On how Kiffin & Co. had to put together two different offenses: “Yeah, I did feel it’s interesting you say that last night after the game, I felt like it was 2 o’clock in the morning, I just felt drained. And so, and I had just reflected back, it was a really long week. Really designed two game plans depending on which quarterback was going, two full different game plans. Really a lot of credit to our coaches for doing that. You know guys, that’s why I give Charlie a lot of credit and remind people, look at some other places around the country. Look at another team in the SEC when they lost their quarterback in a game. How did they do Saturday? Playing with the new quarterback, it’s hard to call a game and especially when the quarterback is different than the other quarterback.

On Ole Miss scouting department and how Chambliss got on the radar: “They just show me film. They bring guys up. They got grades on them and stuff and they showed me him and I said, ‘man this guy’s really really dynamic.’ I said kind of a little under the radar as far as offers and things I said, but guys let me remind you, Cam Ward had like one other offer and they showed me the film and then we brought Cam here on an official visit. Funny enough, Cam was here you’re ready to commit, him and Jaxson were gonna be coming together, which is kind of crazy they both ended up first round picks. I don’t go based off of other offers and all those things. I just watch the film and really thought he was just really dynamic with his feet as well as throwing and would be an awesome quarterback to have on our roster because I certainly don’t like playing against quarterbacks like him, so, why not have one?”

On how Ole Miss adjusts to adjustments for Chambliss now: “I think we’re always doing that, we do that every week. Hey, we ran these last week, so what are they gonna think? Where are they gonna take away and that’s really why coaches spend so much time at the office, most of them. We don’t just run the same plays. Especially in this conference, you have the best, a lot of the best defensive coordinators in the country are in this conference. These guys are great coached on defense this week. So you really got to always be aware of what you’ve done in your self scout.”

On Jon Sumrall’s defenses: “Yeah, really sound, limit big plays, and fundamentals. They play blocks really well, and they tackle really well. I remember that in our game, I remember that watching the film leading up to our game against them last time. Then the way they did during the game.”

Monday press conference

Overall thoughts: “We discussed the game with you guys yesterday, last night. Nothing new on that. Put that to closure with the players this morning and got them on to this challenge this week. This is a really, really good football team in all phases. Great special teams plays. Obviously, they play good defense and now with this quarterback, you know much different than what — we prepare in the offseason after spring ball for the upcoming opponent so very rare that outside of a portal window you can get a quarterback. That’s changed a lot with them. He’s looks like one of the best players in America and they got really good scheme and they they play really hard defense. Same defensive structure and coaching than when we played Troy here. They do a great job tackling. They play really physical. This is one of the better-coached teams in the whole country.”

On if he felt like things changed with teams and tackling: “No, I don’t know when that exactly was. That’s a good question. I just feel like it sticks out now when you see a team that really tackles low, that really does a good job. Their players get dirty, seem like getting themselves dirty by going down and tackling play after play. I guess I would say maybe in a generation now that just wants to have a big hit and stay up and worry how clean their uniforms are and how good they look.”

On Austin Simmons: “I would anticipate Austin being fine to play and being our starting quarterback.”

On if he’s taken many shots on DII players like Trinidad Chambliss: “I don’t think we have, but I think that that part of that was because you weren’t in a free agency, portal world before so you didn’t take near as many transfers and they had to sit out so that’s all changed now to where it’s truly like the NFL, like free agency. We try to look at everybody and we’ve taken a lot of guys from Group of 5 schools over the years, and really have had a lot of success with that so there’s no reason not to go down another level just because I think those guys are really usually wired right. They don’t have the five-star syndrome. They weren’t the highest recruited guys. They just want to work, and they want to buy into a program and be part of a team.”

On what makes Jon Sumrall teams good: “I just think they play really physical. It’s a really defensive team, you can see it’s a defensive head coach by how physical they play, by the way that they tackle, you can see his you know footprint on that. With the quarterback now, they become even you know more of a problem as a team because he’s so dynamic and can do so many things. Think he set school record Saturday with most rushing touchdowns or something. It’s pretty amazing in your third game there and then coming as late as he did after the portal window is closed so it’s a they got a really good team and really challenging. I’m sure they’re watching last week’s film.”

On Ole Miss RB Kewan Lacy: “Yeah, he didn’t have the big numbers last week, but I think a lot of that was schematically defensively. They had a plan seems to me that was if Trinidad played, how they were gonna play and they were gonna stop the run and make him throw. They were very much committed to stopping the run in that game even after halftime. That’s a product of what happens in those games. You got to make plays outside and the running back numbers aren’t as big, but he ran really hard, taking care of the ball really well and he pass protects really well. Had some a couple big explosive plays the last two weeks, he’s picked up A-Gap blitzers very physical.”

On Ole Miss OL pass protecting better: “Yeah, they did. They did a good job. It was a pretty clean game from a standpoint of offensively with the ball, and a lot of that has to do with protection. We saw two of Austin’s picks where he’s getting hit when he throws them, so your protection has a lot to do with turnovers and not having turnovers. So it was pretty good for most of the game.”