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LIVE! From the Manning Center: Ivey explains how, exactly, Kiffin challenged the Ole Miss defense

Ben Garrettby: Ben Garrett10/10/23SpiritBen
NCAA Football: Louisiana State at Mississippi
Sep 30, 2023; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; LSU Tigers offensive linemen Garrett Dellinger (72) blocks Mississippi Rebels defensive linemen Jared Ivey (15) during the first half at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

Lane Kiffin last week made no secret of how he’d issued a challenge to his defense after their poor performance in Ole Miss’ win over LSU. 

But he never really got into the details. Unlike veteran Rebel defensive end Jared Ivey, who met with local media on Tuesday. No. 13-ranked Ole Miss (5-1, 2-1 SEC) is in its bye week. The Rebels return to action October 21 at Auburn.

“I’ll put it like this: The coaches, they often ask us what we think Ole Miss is known for,” Ivey began. “You think they’re talking about defense? We’ve got all his promotional stuff, ‘Score From Far’ and this and that, which is good. Our offense can go out there and do big things. 

“But we don’t want to play shootout games. He just challenged us to play up to (our) standard. To just play like that from the start and not get into those dogfights late.”

Ole Miss was in a dogfight last week against Arkansas. However, the defense stiffened up, while the offense did enough, as the Rebels escaped with a 27-20 win.

Ivey and his fellow Rebel defenders held the Razorbacks to just 288 total yards, the fewest surrendered to an SEC opponent since 2019. They gave up all of 36 Arkansas rushing yards, their fewest against an SEC opponent since 2014.

Basically, challenged (successfully!) accepted and executed.

“I think we’ve played better as of late,” Ivey said. “I don’t think two weeks ago versus LSU was our best performance, but I think, as a whole, we’ve been getting better each week and coming back and focusing on the right things and putting in that work. Pretty good so far.”

Ivey was joined by Ole Miss wide receiver Jordan Watkins for Tuesday’s media session. Here’s everything else they had to say.

RELATED: Which Ole Miss freshmen have burned through their redshirt so far?

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