Lane Kiffin explains what new staff hires will mean for Ole Miss playbook

Ole Miss is coming off a strong season in 2021 and has plans to continue being a consistent contender in the SEC coming into the 2022 campaign. Although the Rebels have lost star quarterback Matt Corral to the NFL and a couple of key assistant coaches to different schools, head coach Lane Kiffin is confident that his program will stay successful moving forward.

With the Rebels currently going through spring practices, there’s some new faces out on the field coaching – as Kiffin brought in some new guys during the offseason to fill some voids that were left by departing coaches.

While Maurice Crum came in from Western Kentucky to serve as Ole Miss’ co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Marty Biagi left Purdue to join the Rebels’ staff as the special teams coordinator. Additionally, Kiffin decided to stay in-house and promote John David Baker from passing game coordinator to co-offensive coordinator.

Meeting with the media last week, Kiffin was asked if the staff changes will make the Rebels look different on either side of the ball – from both a schematic or strategic standpoint.

“Not a whole lot,” Kiffin said. “There’ll be a lot of carryover defensively promoting from within, and Charlie [Weis] on offense having been with us before. I think that’s really good for the players with some changes, but not overhauls. That’s what you should do. You win 10 games and you always want to try to get better and improve and look at new ideas and things, but not totally scratch.

“I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot of difference from the outside.”

Kiffin describes impact of losing star quarterback Matt Corral

Meeting with reporters, Lane Kiffin was asked how weird it was to be back on the field for spring practices and not having Matt Corral out there with the team.

“There’s a lot of weird things, so it is what it is,” Kiffin said. “It’s been a long time since I haven’t had Wilson out there – so not just here, but going all the way back to FAU, or Kevin Smith, so there’s a lot of new … and Matt’s part of that. There’s a lot of different things, but that comes with success – and change is good.

“You’ve gotta embrace change. New people have new ideas.”

Corral put together a stellar career at Ole Miss, throwing for 8,287 yards, 57 touchdowns and 23 touchdowns over his four seasons in Oxford. It’s not going to be an easy task for Kiffin to replace the quarterback, but the Rebels have no choice but to find their new signal-caller.