WATCH: Lane Kiffin nailed his MVP pick for Ole Miss football’s Saturday scrimmage
Lane Kiffin nailed his prediction on which quarterback would be the MVP of Saturday’s scrimmage, the first for his Ole Miss Rebels in fall camp.
His pick, though, probably isn’t who you’re thinking.
The now-third-year Ole Miss head coach didn’t go with Jaxson Dart or Luke Altmyer prior to the practice, which was held in front of fans inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
No, he went with Kinkead Dent, the somewhat forgotten man in a battle most expect to drag into the season. The Rebels open with Troy September 3.
Dent finished 7 for 7 for 62 yards and two touchdowns, while Dent, as noted in the scrimmage report from the Ole Miss Spirit’s Chuck Rounsaville, was 16 for 20 for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
Altmyer completed 14 of 20 passes for 124 yards, no touchdowns and a late, Hail Mary interception.
“Kinkead played really well,” Kiffin said. “We play a little game in the quarterback room of predicting MVPs for the day and guessing. I would like to go on record that I picked Kinkead Dent to be the MVP today.
“That may have had something to do with the play-calling down (in the red zone) to affect some touchdown passes and win that bet. But he did a good job and made a lot of plays.”
Ole Miss was without a number of starters and key contributors, mostly by design.
Mason Brooks, the transfer offensive lineman from Western Kentucky, left early with a minor injury, but veteran Nick Broeker, who only played a handful of snaps, was simply pulled to manage his workload in the lead-up to the season.
“This was an important scrimmage,” Kiffin said. “This will be a very good evaluation to go watch closely. We’re not playing a game today, so there are certain people we didn’t play the whole time. Some maybe that were hurt that we didn’t push to play that we maybe would have in a game.
“Nick was not an injury-related thing. Just wanted to play him a few snaps and get him out and see some of the other guys move around.”
Without Broeker (and others), the first-team Ole Miss defensive line had a strong showing.
Transfer defensive lineman JJ Pegues, for example, had two sacks. Pegues, an Oxford native, returned home to Ole Miss from Auburn in the off-season, and he has been competing with veteran KD Hill to start at nose in the Rebels’ 3-3-5 defensive scheme.
“Our first d-line, when they’re playing well, presents a challenge in pass-rush situations,” Kiffin said. “We had some issues again there today. We’re not game-planning against our defense, but that’s a good problem for us to have, because we haven’t had good, quality rushers across the board in the two years we’ve been here.
“We’ve had some good ones, but not all the way across the board and with depth. That’s good because it’s a hard position to recruit. It’s a hard position to turn around. Our (coaches) have done a good job recruiting, especially in the portal. The majority of those guys were not signed here out of high school. I thought the first two (quarterbacks) didn’t play great and took too many sacks, even though we’re not hitting them. Those would have been sacks.”
Hear more from Kiffin on the scrimmage in the video below, provided by Ole Miss Sports Production.
