Lane Kiffin pulls back the curtain, makes hilarious admission on key play vs. Georgia Tech

During Ole Miss’ win over Georgia Tech last week, Cedric Johnson made one of the plays of the game. He blocked a punt and recovered it on the Yellow Jackets’ first drive of the game — just as Lane Kiffin drew up, right?

Not exactly.

Kiffin said the play wasn’t designed to block the punt. It was just Johnson showing off his playmaking ability, which is why Kiffin shot straight with reporters after the game.

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“You guys know I don’t like to just take credit for anything,” Kiffin said. “So we were actually in punt safe and ‘Ced’ just made a great play.

“I could be like every other coach and be like, ‘You know, we just worked on that all week. It was all us.’ But no, that’s a really good player making a good play. We actually need to work on not getting the ball when his knee’s on the ground because we would’ve scored, too.”

It’s also the second straight game Ole Miss blocked a punt, and Kiffin previously said he wasn’t happy with how the special teams played in the season opener. He made sure to give that unit credit this week, especially considering last week’s game was on the road.

“Special teams has played really well the last two weeks,” Kiffin said. “That’s the third part that we say of playing on the road: run game, defense and special teams.”

Lane Kiffin assesses the performance of Jaxson Dart after watching Georgia Tech film

After Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart threw an interception with 24 seconds before halftime Saturday, Lane Kiffin saw a teaching moment. The Rebels were already up 21-0 on Georgia Tech, and Dart took a chance to try to increase that lead — but paid the price.

The mistake caused some critical comments from Kiffin at halftime, and Dart likely got an earful in the locker room. It appeared to work, as Dart led the Rebels to touchdowns on their first three drives of the second half and they went on to claim a 42-0 victory.

After having a chance to watch the game film over the weekend, Kiffin was proud of the way his young quarterback responded to the challenge.

“He responded really well,” Kiffin said. “I think 6-of-6. He came out in the second half after the interception for over 100 yards (and) 6-of-6 or 7-of-7 — one of the two. So that’s pretty good. Didn’t turn the ball over outside of that play. It was a really good job managing the game outside of that play.”