Lane Kiffin reflects on defense-first win over Arkansas: 'That's what a team is'

Ole Miss, by Lane Kiffin’s admission, played poorly on offense and particularly in the passing game against Arkansas on Saturday. But when the offense didn’t have the usual juice, it was the defense stepping up.

And following a performance where the Ole Miss defense allowed just 20 points, Kiffin had high praise for that side of the ball. He shared as much with SEC Network sideline reporter Alyssa Lang.

“I think it’s awesome. You think of all these shootouts, but you love to be able to win some on offense and some on defense like that. And that’s what a team is,” Kiffin said.

Arkansas amassed 288 total and couldn’t do anything on the ground. Arkansas rushed for just 36 yards on 29 carries: 1.2 yards per carry. They created havoc in the backfield with five sacks and nine tackles for loss. And the Rebels defense showed up in leverage situations, too. Arkansas went 7-for-16 on third down and the Ole Miss defense created two interceptions, to boot.

But while the defense showed up and showed out, the offense got stuck in the mud. Much of the struggle stemmed from quarterback Jaxson Dart being banged up.

Kiffin assessed the state of the offense with Lang.

“He’s a warrior. Obviously he was hurt and his game was off today. We didn’t play at all in the passing game today. So we gave them a lot of opportunities but the defense came up big,” Kiffin said.

And with the win, Ole Miss moves to 5-1 and sits tied for second place in the SEC West.

All told, Kiffin is pretty content with that.

“This is hard, man. This is the SEC. So to be 5-1 headed into a bye, it’s pretty good,” Kiffin said.

Kiffin wasn’t cool, calm and collected the entire evening

Kiffin was irate with officials over a no-call in the 2nd quarter of Saturday night’s game between the Rebels and Arkansas. It all began when Dart took off on a scramble.

Dart closed in on the Ole Miss sideline right near Kiffin. And as he crossed the boundary out of bounds, an Arkansas defender gave Dart a shove in the back.

While the quarterback didn’t fall down and was no worse for wear, he did careen into some teammates and staffers, and Kiffin was boiling over at the lack of a late-hit penalty flag.

The no-call

Lane Kiffin is hot pic.twitter.com/nn6l2L7wGp

— Brad Logan (@BradLoganCOTE) October 8, 2023

To cap it off, Ole Miss ended up punting on a series that otherwise would’ve been extended by the penalty call.

As the Ole Miss punt unit came on the field, the boos rained down, not for the decision to kick but that the officials didn’t throw the flag to keep the drive going.

Ultimately, Dart wasn’t any worse off and the Rebels managed to stretch the lead to 17-7 before the half.