Notes from Lane Kiffin's press conference ahead of Ole Miss' season opener against Mercer
The regular season is here and week one for Ole Miss began on Monday with the first game week practice and head coach Lane Kiffin held his first press conference of the new season.
Ole Miss opens up its 2023 campaign against Mercer on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN+ and while the opponent is not the most-marquee matchup the Rebels have opened a year with Kiffin provided a few interesting tidbits in his first press conference of the regular season.
Here are some highlights of the near 13-minutes Kiffin spent with the local media:
Kiffin thought the mock game they had on Saturday went about as good as they could expect. “Went well, which is not always the case every year.” He noted a the players responded well to making it a game day atmosphere, or as close as possible.
Happy with where the team is, currently, as it transitions out of fall camp and into regular season. “Really like where they are, as a team, as far as the way they work. How they prepare.
Publicly, Kiffin continues to say he is undecided on naming a starting quarterback for Saturday’s opener between Jaxson Dart and Spencer Sanders. “Both guys have done extremely well. Made really explosive plays Saturday and managed the offense well. Very confident in both of them.”
All through camp Ole Miss has practiced in extreme temperatures and Kiffin has tried to prepare them for Saturday’s game, which is now forecast to be roughly 20 degrees or so cooler than it has been. “Good thing is we’re playing at home. We have this heat when we’re practicing. Not like we’re going to a different region. We play at the exact time time Saturday so we’ve dealt with that.”
Kiffin noted Zakhari Franklin is currently not practicing with the team fully, though he was seen for the first time out with the team during last Thursday’s walk through. Franklin still recovering from a procedure done prior to camp starting.
Related: John Saunders Jr. says late part of Ole Miss fall camp is ‘clean-up time’
Kiffin is very pleased with the progress Pete Golding has made over the last month with the Ole Miss defense installing a new scheme. “Feel really good with the way that they communicated with each other last Saturday. All 11 guys on the same page, putting in enough stuff that causes problems but not too much stuff that we don’t know what we’re doing.”
When it comes to chemistry Kiffin is less concerned with the chemistry of the team coming out of camp compared to where his concerns were at the start of it. “I’ve seen really good chemistry. I don’t think if you pull up a year ago I said that. …I didn’t feel this way a year ago. That ended up showing itself, unfortunately.”
Depth is also at a better place for Ole Miss than it was a year ago as far as Kiffin is concerned. Not just with the starters but across the board. “We do have better backups than we’ve had, ever. But, again, this is not an individual sport. A lot of it is how you play together and how you come together.”
