Lane Kiffin on Tulane matchup: 'This is not an evaluation game'

After a season-opening cakewalk victory, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and his Rebels have a much different opponent this week in Tulane. The Green Wave are ranked in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll.

Plus Ole Miss has to travel to New Orleans and take on Tulane at Yulman Stadium.

Kiffin emphasized during his press conference Monday that the Rebels are taking their matchup with the Green Wave very seriously.

“I’m not worried about evaluating,” Kiffin said. “I’m worried about trying to go beat a top-25 team. This is not an evaluation game. We’re going on the road for the first time with our team into one of the hottest teams in the country and probably the hottest quarterback in the country off almost being perfect last week. I would actually like another evaluation game, but we’re that’s not what this is certainly.”

Tulane enters the game coming off a 37-17 home victory over South Alabama. Quarterback Michael Pratt, considered one of the best Group of Five signal-callers in the country, was spectacular. He was nearly perfect on the day, throwing for 294 yards and four touchdowns while completing 14 of his 15 passes. He also rushed for 39 yards.

Corey Platt Jr. was all over the field for the defense, notching 15 tackles and one sack during the game. The Jaguars finished with only 265 yards of total offense on 62 plays.

Expectations are high for the Green Wave this season. They finished last year with a 12-2 record and Cotton Bowl victory over USC and entered the year as the preseason AAC favorites.

Former LSU fullback turned radio host Jacob Hester explained to On3‘s Andy Staples that Tulane is a team that can pull off the upset of Kiffin and the Rebels in Week 2.

“Michael Pratt plays quarterback like he’s a fullback, so you know that I love that,” he said. “Go back to that Oklahoma game a couple of years ago, that’s the only style he knows. Cam Rising is the same way. Sometimes it gets him into some trouble as far as injuries, but my goodness I love the toughness. If you don’t think that was a big win against South Alabama, then you just haven’t been paying attention. In returning production, South Alabama was fourth overall in the country from a 10-3 football team…That was a real program that Tulane just took to the woodshed.”