Lane Kiffin jokes about his pre-play celebrations, insight Pete Golding gave him

Early in his tenure at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin became known for celebrating big plays as they were happening or in some cases beforehand. However, he doesn’t do that as much lately.

As Kiffin explained during an appearance on SEC Now, that’s partially because he no longer has Matt Corral and partially because he realized he was giving too much away.

“Is Matt Corral coming back?” Lane Kiffin asked. “It’s easy to do that when they’re like 75-yard touchdowns that those guys were making that year. We were one of the best offenses in the country in explosive pass plays. So, that’s part of it.”

Roman Harper, who was advocating for more celebrations, accepted that it was easier when Ole Miss was scoring on long passes more often to celebrate like that.

“He was a veteran quarterback at that point and I had more confidence. If you throw your arms up this has got to work. What if we miss the throw, you know?”

Beyond the chance that the play misses and it’s embarrassing to have celebrated early, there’s a good football reason not to throw his arms in the air. Defensive coordinators like Pete Golding have tipped him off that he’s giving away the play early and giving the defense a chance to adjust.

“Plus, I’ve stopped doing the hands thing. Because I’ve got feedback from Pete Golding, from these defensive coordinators, that they taught the players, if he puts his hands up, like if you see that before the play back-up,” Kiffin said.

“It’s not a run play. Inside intel. So, now I’m just gonna do it when we hand off inside zone.”

Watch when Lane Kiffin celebrated by throwing his clipboard

Back in 2021, Lane Kiffin went viral with what was most likely his most well-known touchdown celebration. It was on a go-ahead score and Kiffin lost his mind.

Check out Kiffin’s celebration, here:

Clipboard @Lane_Kiffin pic.twitter.com/JhbdEmHlb6

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 9, 2021

On the play itself, Matt Corral went long and hit Braylon Sanders in stride for a touchdown from the other side of the 50-yard line. It gave Ole Miss the lead and helped Ole Miss get a close win over a good Arkansas team in Oxford.

In the viral clip, Lane Kiffin can be seen at the bottom of the screen. He was wearing white and had his arms in the air almost from the time the ball was snapped. That’s because he saw Sanders burn his man without safety help on the play. Corral saw that too and hit him with the pass. Kiffin sprinted down the field as far as he could, throwing his clipboard into the air.

It was pure joy, but did kind of give away that an explosive play was about to happen.