Lane Kiffin downplays familiarity with Joe Jon Finley ahead of Oklahoma game

Ole Miss is getting ready to host Oklahoma on Saturday. With that, head coach Lane Kiffin is going to compete against a familiar face in Joe Jon Finley on the opposing sideline.

Finley was an assistant coach at Ole Miss in 2020 under Kiffin. Now, he’s been promoted to play caller for Oklahoma after the Sooners fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. That familiarity might seem impactful, but Kiffin actually downplayed what it meant for the game on Saturday.

“I don’t think that really matters,” Lane Kiffin said. “That’s kind of one of those things I can understand why you’d think that would mean a lot. He didn’t call plays here. He’s got a different situation, obviously, than there. He was our tight end coach here.”

Finley only spent one season with Ole Miss, going to Oklahoma in 2021 as a tight ends coach. As a player, he had been a Sooners quarterback who went on to convert to tight end for the opportunity to play more. In 2022, another former Ole Miss assistant, Jeff Lebby took over at Oklahoma as the offensive coordinator.

When Lebby earned the Mississippi State job, Oklahoma hired Littrell and promoted Finley to co-offensive coordinator as well as tight ends coach. With that heavy involvement in the offense already, Kiffin doesn’t expect to see wholesale changes just because the Sooners have a new offensive coordinator.

“So, I don’t think that him having worked here before would help us at all figuring out what he’s gonna do, and with only a week to call plays,” Kiffin said. “Usually people just add a play here or there but you stay with the same system. You can’t reinvent the system in six days.”

Offense has been a major problem for Oklahoma and the Sooners have lost three of their last four games largely because they’ve struggled to score. For the season, Oklahoma is 107th in the country in scoring offense, averaging 22.1 points per game. That mark is 15th in the SEC this season. In Oklahoma’s four SEC games this season, the Sooners are averaging just 13.5 points per game.

Oklahoma has also made several changes at quarterback this season, at one point benching Jackson Arnold for freshman Michael Hawkins. Now, head coach Brent Venables has shared that he’s switching back to Arnold ahead of the game against Ole Miss. For Lane Kiffin, it’s another change and position of uncertainty that he’ll need to manage.