‘Got to figure out something better’: Lane Kiffin expects more from Ole Miss than what he got against Tulsa
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin opened his Tulsa postgame press conference with a light joke to ease some tension.
“It’d been good to have this at halftime,” Kiffin said. “Would have been a good press conference.”
Truer words.
The Rebels improved to 4-0 on the 2022 season with a 35-27 win, but they did so in closer-than-it-should-have-been fashion.
First, they faced a deficit for the first time this season after the Golden Hurricane jumped out to a 14-7 first-quarter advantage. But the Rebels outscored them 28-3 in the the next quarter and a half for a 35-17 lead at halftime.
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They never scored again.
Tulsa, meanwhile, had 10 second-half points, which looks OK on paper, but the Golden Hurricane continually gashed Ole Miss on the ground with a redshirt-freshman backup quarterback and a third-team running back.
Tulsa starting quarterback Davis Brin, a senior and team captain, started hot, including a go-ahead 20-yard touchdown toss. But he was later lost to an ankle injury. No matter, Tulsa replaced Brin with Braylon Braxton and kept on rolling.
Ole Miss, which entered the day in the Top 25 in the FBS in 10 separate defensive categories, surrendered 457 total yards, with 262 coming on the ground. The Rebels had given up 71 rushing yards, on average, in their first three games.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t play well in the second half, especially offensively,” Kiffin said. “Didn’t play well at all defensively. That’s not a good thing. We did win, so we’re 4-0. That’s the best you can be from a record standpoint at this point.
“But more similar to the first game of the year (a 28-10 Ole Miss win over Troy), where we played really well early. I thought we had overcome that. Obviously we didn’t do that today. Got to figure out something better.”
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There were other positives outside of the final score.
True freshman running back Quinshon Judkins continued to dazzle.
He finished as the team’s single-game rushing leader in attempts (27), yards (140) and touchdowns (2), however, star first-teamer Zach Evans was injured and didn’t play in the second half due to what Kiffin deemed “a medical thing.”
Judkins now has six total rushing touchdowns, surpassing the overall total for last season’s lead back, Jerrion Ealy. Ealy left Ole Miss early as a junior and entered the 2022 NFL Draft. He signed as an undrafted player with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Most notably, Kiffin finally made an official decision on a staring quarterback.
Barring anything unforeseen, Jaxson Dart, who’s started three of the first four games of the year, will lead the Rebels moving forward.
Actually, Kiffin went so far as to declare Luke Altmyer the backup.
“I thought Jaxson played well,” he said. Dart, in his sixth combined start between USC and now Ole Miss, was 13 for 24 for 154 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He carried 13 times for 116 rushing yards.
“He was more physical in the run game than I’d like, and we tried to stop him a couple of times. Ideally, we don’t want to run him so much, but sometimes that’s just what they do on the reads. I thought he was good. Smart with the ball.”
Hear everything Kiffin had to say, in a postgame video provided by Ole Miss Sports Production.
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