From the Locker Room: Lane Kiffin and select Ole Miss players break down 35-27 win over Tulsa
Ole Miss has played four games in the 2022 season.
The Rebels have won all of them.
But their latest, a 35-27 win over Tulsa, was up-and-down at best, including a second half that saw the Ole Miss offense and its newly-crowned QB1, Jaxson Dart, fail to score a single point.
“There’s definitely things I wish I could have back,” Dart said. Dart was making his sixth combined career start between USC and Ole Miss. He was 13 for 24 for 154 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“Just some little easy mistakes that I don’t usually make. I’m just looking forward to getting better and taking the experiences and mistakes that I’ve made and make sure I don’t make those mistakes again.”
Ole Miss had two double-digit tacklers.
Among them was safety Ladarius Tennsion, the team leader with 12.
However, what had been a stingy Rebel defense struggled for answers against the Golden Hurricane. Ole Miss surrendered at least 21 points for the first time since Auburn last season. The Rebels didn’t register a single sack.
“We’ve just got to come in Sunday and put in more work,” Tennison, a transfer from Auburn in his first Ole Miss season, said. “Just more tackling, being more fundamental with things. Just not finishing.
“Having the right leverage of being low and not tackling high.”
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Up next is Kentucky Saturday at 11 a.m. CT.
The game could feature a pair of Top 12 teams. Polls are almost always released Sunday afternoon each week.
The Wildcats, like Ole Miss, are undefeated, though they, too, are coming off an uninspiring victory. They survived Northern Illinois, 31-23. The same Northern Illinois that Tulsa, a week prior, defeated 38-35.
“I don’t like it in the moment,” Kiffin said of the Tulsa results in advance of Kentucky. “Once we watch it, once we’re able to have a lot of good things to show them where we didn’t do the right things, I think it’ll get their attention and we’ll come out and play better with that, hopefully.
“Can’t pick and choose when you’re going to play good, what plays, by what score, what stadium you’re in. Unfortunately, we did that in the second half (against Tulsa).”
Here’s everything Kiffin and players had to say following the win, in videos provided by Ole Miss Sports Production.
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