Lane Kiffin wants Rebels to learn from loss, won't let it spiral

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin revealed his message to the team following the Rebels’ loss to LSU on Saturday. During his press conference on Monday, Kiffin said there’s ‘no time to sit around and mope’ about the first loss of the season, which is the harsh reality with a road game at Texas A&M coming up on Saturday night.

“This is really, I guess in a year, our first time of having a Monday after a loss, coming back to meet with the players and practice and stuff, so it’s a new challenge for our guys, and the biggest key is that, one loss, you don’t allow it to move into more losses,” Kiffin said Monday.

“We can’t let that beat us again,” Kiffin added. “We’ve got to learn from it, we’ve got to improve in certain areas. We had too many penalties. Some poor decisions on ones. I tell our guys, you’ve got to understand, stadiums you play in, crews that you have, there are certain crews that officiate games differently.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“I’m not complaining. We just have to understand what it is. Like Alabama the week before had 17 penalties. We’ve got to do a better job with that, understanding all the things that go with that and definitely finish games better than we did. No time to sit around and mope with it.”

Kiffin points to penalties, red zone failures

Bringing up the Rebels’ penalties, Kiffin identified the issue as one of the biggest areas of improvement needed going into Week 9. Officials flagged them 10 times for 111 yards.

Also at the top of his list of concerns is the team’s execution in the red zone. The offense finished two of five red zone trips with touchdowns. However, they’re still a top-25 team this season, converting 73% of red zone trips into touchdowns.

“When you play really talented players and programs, they will expose certain areas,” Kiffin said. “That’s why when you play one of them super early or open with them, you learn more about issues that you have, and sometimes they can be hidden until you go play one of, like I said last week, a program like the next three.”

On Saturday, Ole Miss travels for a night kickoff at Kyle Field. The Aggies are in free fall after taking three consecutive losses and are now 3-4 with just one SEC victory.