Everything Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin said on the SEC teleconference call

No. 20 Ole Miss (1-0) is at Kentucky (1-0) Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC. 

Sixth-year Rebel head coach Lane Kiffin joined the SEC teleconference call on Wednesday to preview. Here’s everything he had to say.

OPENING STATEMENT

Kiffin: Just got off the field; practice went late. Big-time SEC matchup. One that’s been very competitive, even before we got here. Games down to the wire. We’ve got to go play an extremely well-coached team that does a great job and plays very physical. 

Look how they started last year — beat us [and] right before has Georgia right down to the wire. Coach [Mark] Stoops does a great job with these guys. We’re going to have our hands full.

ON OLE MISS’ SEVEN PLAYS OF 30-PLUS YARDS IN WEEK 1

Kiffin: Usually fast players, and I’m not being sarcastic. That’s why we always try to find in recruiting speed. The running back [Kewan Lacy] showed it. [Harrison Wallace] showed it, too. To have explosive plays is so impactful in outcomes of the games. And, also, when you’re able to not get caught at the end of a play down inside the 10 and have to worry about the Red Zone scoring versus just someone that scores and doesn’t get caught. It’s a big difference.

ON EVALUATING KENTUCKY AFTER WEEK 1

Kiffin: I’ve told our guys you can’t base anybody, especially Kentucky, off a game before or whatever it was, ‘cause they’ve had games before like that and come out and beat us last year — just, what, a couple weeks after that South Carolina game up there? 

Also, it’s a quarterback [Zach Calzada] who’s thrown like 9,000 yards, whatever it is, 10th year playing. So, guy who’s won a lot of games, played a lot, thrown really well. College football’s turning like they’ve got Joe Flacco now or something.

You can’t bet on because they struggled last week in the passing game that’s going to show up this week.

RELATED: Ole Miss at Kentucky: How to watch, live stream, start time, odds

ON KIFFIN’S EVOLUTION IN PHILOSOPHY ON FOURTH DOWN

Kiffin: I think some people, back in the day, kind of ‘Riverboat Gamblers’ they used to call them, whatever, with some coaches, they just went for it. I didn’t start that way. 

Mine was all analytic-based. Mine was once they really nailed analytics and flipped the old-school way of thinking of the value of conversions and field goals versus touchdowns. The old-school punt-‘em-deep and the analytics that play out around that, that’s really when I changed. 

I immediately bought into the analytics and went with them. Most other people kind of waited to see. That’s when I changed.

ON IF HE EVER GOES AGAINST THE ANALYTICS BOOK

Kiffin: I do every once in a while, but that’s because there would be something the book doesn’t understand, like momentum in a game or it was supposed to be a high-scoring game and now both defenses are playing really well. I’ll adjust some things like that that the book can’t do in a game.

ON AVENGING LAST YEAR’S KENTUCKY LOSS

Kiffin: We spent a lot of time this off-season on Kentucky. That was a really hard loss to deal with, especially with the offensive struggles in the game. We’ve paid a lot of attention to that film.

ON KENTUCKY’S DEFENSE AGAINST TOLEDO

Kiffin: It’s so many new players, especially on the front, that have come in and are still playing great Kentucky defense. Really, just, what [Stoops] always does — finds a way to get new players over there and basically play better than the last place they were at.

ON OLE MISS QB AUSTIN SIMMONS’ DEBUT

Kiffin: I thought he made some really good throws, really accurate. Rebounded well from the interceptions and stayed really composed.