Everything Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin had to say on the SEC teleconference call

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin joined the SEC teleconference call on Wednesday to talk the Rebels’ upcoming showdown with Tennessee in Knoxville, among other topics. The teams will kick off Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network. Here’s everything he had to say …

Opening statement: Well, in the middle of a hard week of practice. Getting ready to play what I consider a Top 25 team. Surprised they are not. Voted that way. Two blowout SEC wins are hard to come by. One of the Top 5 offenses in the country and an extremely hard place to play that, I guess, being told, is going to be a sellout for the first time in years. Obviously that means there’s a lot of energy and excitement around there, which goes into how a crowd is during the game. This is a huge challenge for us. We’re going to have to improve in a lot of areas from last week in order to give ourselves a chance to win.”

On Matt Corral not throwing an interception so far this season: Good head coaching. He really has matured. I think having a spring with him, for him, has done a lot. Hopefully that continues. Over the course of years you have games that people learn from. I think of a game of not throwing interceptions, I think of Jonathan Crompton (when Kiffin was at Tennessee) against UCLA. That’s kind of like the flashback to Arkansas a year ago (with Corral, when he threw six interceptions). Obviously we never had Jonathan for a second year, but the growth between year one and year two can be huge in those situations so those games, hopefully, don’t happen again.

On what impresses him about Tennessee: A lot. The quarterback (Hendon Hooker) playing so well after not being the initial guy. I think the ability to run the ball. This system, this tempo, run system, I’ve said for a long time, and it’s interesting as you see stats, perception vs. reality, perception, I bet you people would say, ‘This team, this team, this team and this team are great rushing teams.’ And maybe it’s because of how tough their head coach is and those things. Or because they go under center and huddle. But then you look at the stats and go, ‘Wow, outside of triple-option teams, in the Top 5 rushing offenses in the entire country are Ole Miss, Tennessee and Arkansas.’ I like to live in reality and not perception. The point is, for the second week in a row, we’re getting ready to play a great rushing team. The facts show you that, even though I think a lot of people say, ‘Oh, here’s another spread team that throw the ball all over.’ That ain’t the case.

On if leaving Tennessee for USC was a mistake: I don’t think of it that way. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We went there, and being told by the powers there that the Reggie Bush situation, there’s nothing to it, best case scenario, slap on wrist. And then all of the sudden, we go there, put a staff together (and) start recruiting and we get a two-year bowl ban. Thirty scholarships, which is well known, but think about you go in (and) in your first year all your juniors and seniors can transfer with no penalty. They can just leave. They can go take visits, they can do whatever. They’re not going to be able to play in a bowl for two years. It’s hard to keep them. You’d think very hard to recruit when kids can’t go play in bowl games, and we sign the No. 1 class in the country, loading up before the number took their hit. There’s no way to know that, so I don’t sit there and say we should have stayed because we didn’t know that. I like to live in the positive and say had those numbers not happened, it would have been a totally different story of results on the field. I know that.

On when the USC challenges set in: When the results come back and they say two-year bowl ban, 30 scholarships reduction and all your juniors and seniors can leave. Basically what they wrote that day — everything but the death penalty. I remember everyone saying, including the LA Times, get ready for half-empty stadiums, get ready for three, four-win seasons, just like what had happened at Miami when this had happened. Then we went 10-2 and everybody forgot about that, that that’s what’s supposed to happen.

On the challenge of building quarterback depth in the age of the transfer portal: I mentioned that this week, the value of the quarterback. Ohio State’s great year and how valuable that was to have depth like that, which I don’t think happens anymore because everybody leaves as soon as they’re not the guy. Very challenging.

On adapting to that particular challenge: That’s difficult. Every situation’s different. Sometimes we tell the guys, ‘Yeah, we get it. It’s probably in your best interest. We understand. You’ve got to protect yourself.’ It’s every situation is different.

On implementing parts of the Baylor offense into his offenses at FAU and now Ole Miss: I’d studied it. I’d seen what it’d done very close watching the Washington-Baylor bowl game that was in the 70s, 60s (points-wise). Was kind of enamored with it for a while and started to study some of it and use some of it at Alabama and just said, ‘All right, if I get a head job again, this is what I want to do.’ Dealing in facts, it’s really amazing the output of what this system … and credit to Art Briles, because all three of those teams (Ole Miss, Tennessee and Arkansas) are the three top rushing teams in the country. You look in the SEC and some of the teams probably a lot of people listening to this would say are great rushing teams and they’re really not. I give a ton of credit to Art Briles.

On how he expects to be received Saturday on his third trip back to Tennessee: I don’t know that. I feel like it’s gotten better over the years just in general and messing around with Twitter and stuff like that and whatever a few years back when there was an opening. I think someone sent an article when all the email requests to (Phil) Fulmer were about hiring us back there. But I don’t know. It may be one thing to say that and feel good about people and a relationship until they jog out in a different color and for those next three hours you need to beat them. I don’t know.

On the evolution of his fourth-down philosophy: We had started to see these analytics and the details of them in the time at Alabama. They were not, as you can imagine, really used there. It doesn’t matter. Some people like them, some people don’t. If you studied them in the Alabama game and the field goal attempts the other night against (Texas) A&M, the analytics would tell you, 100 percent, to go the other way. But everybody’s different. We’re way over on the other end of it. I kind of say new school vs. old school. We’re really believing in them because they are factual. If you do, that, it means going more than the common fan or coach does. If you look, I believe we’re first in the country in times going for it. That’s not just, ‘Hey, we’re going to go for it to go for it.’ That’s all studied. That’s all thought about before. The way the game’s going has a lot to do with that. When you have a really good quarterback that helps you do what you’re supposed to do, that makes it a little bit easier.