LSU vs. Ole Miss: What Lane Kiffin said about facing LSU, Brian Kelly

LSU head coach Brian Kelly had his weekly press conference on Monday, touching on a number of topics ahead of Saturday’s matchup with No. 10 Ole Miss.

In Oxford, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin also had his weekly Monday presser, and he opened up on a number of topics involving both the Rebels and Tigers.

That included his thoughts on the back-and-forth, high-scoring game a year ago, his view of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, memories in Tiger Stadium, the status of Ole Miss standout wide receiver Tre Harris and more.

Here’s the full transcript from Kiffin’s Monday press conference.

Opening Statement: Really a big week for us in preparation. Going to play a really talented, well-coached team in a really challenging place to play, especially at night. Our guys are excited for the challenge coming off of last week’s road game. Got a lot of work to do, a lot of things to improve on, especially offensively. Really felt good about two of the three phases Saturday. Our goal is play a complete game this week.

Q: Redshirt conversations with players…

Kiffin: That’s really challenging nowadays with the different landscape. I know a lot of coaches have frustration with that. I think a number of coaches making a push for just five years total so we can get out of this players playing and then they decide not to play after four games of the season. There’s no perfect answer. At the end of the day, it’s their choice. Just have to work around it. I think it falls into the category of how it’s been done for a while now that should be revisited and does it really make a lot of sense? And not just our side as coaches, but from a players’ side, that’s hard on them too. Do I keep playing or get another year, especially since you can get paid for another year of playing here or somewhere else. … It puts both sides in a tough situation.

Q: Reflecting on his 100 wins…

Kiffin: I don’t know that that matters much. That falls more into outcomes of things vs. process. Just maintained to work really hard and prepare our team. There’s a lot of challenges within that in this conference. We saw last week, this is a really deep, hard conference much like the NFL. That’s not like that around the country in most places – that’s kind of off on that – but I don’t think you have much time to think about much else besides continuing to get your team better all year around because this is a really challenging conference.

Q: How does this year’s team’s leadership compare to previous years?

Kiffin: I do think we have a lot of guys that care about the team so that loss was really hurtful to them. I think it kind of helped them too because it was a traumatic day. They didn’t expect to lose the game. … It was hard to deal with and I think they helped each other through that having similar pain at the time.

Q: Thoughts on Brian Kelly previously mentioning Ole Miss’ offense making him make changes after last season’s game and do you expect those LSU players to have a chip on their shoulder?

Kiffin: I don’t know that. They got a new staff over there. Brian does a great job. I think he’s all-time active winningest coach. You have to make hard changes to be a successful head coach. I’m sure that was challenging for him but you have to do what’s in the best interest for the team. Every year is independent. Every game is independent of other games. I don’t know that there’s much relative to last year. As you see in college football, you can’t even say what’s relative a week ago. …

Q: What challenges does LSU poise?

Kiffin: Like all LSU teams, regardless of who the head coach is there, they’re extremely talented. They have great looking players. Really explosive on offense. I think Nussmeier is really talented, really good. He has a good release. There’s really good players you have to go play against. It’s been that case for a long time.

Q: Injury update on Tre Harris?

Kiffin:He couldn’t finish the first half and wasn’t really close to going back in during the second half. He certainly wouldn’t be playing today. We have to get the other guys ready. We have to perform better than we did in the second half without him. … That makes us move people in different spots when he’s out. We’re preparing to do that and preparing to play without him.

Q: Did Ole Miss’ secondary play better or was South Carolina not good at throwing the ball?

Kiffin: No disrespect, I think it’s in the middle there. Both. I think they would tell you they missed some guys. … We played better. We made way less mistakes. We definitely played better.

Q: How did your OL play vs. South Carolina?

Kiffin: Up and down. Just like the DBs and the play of the opponent, I think in this case it was because of two really elite college defensive ends. The freshman (Dylan Stewart), looks like he’s going to be a top 10 pick. They give you a unique scheme … credit to them for doing a really good job on that end too.

Q: What are your experiences in Death Valley?

Kiffin: Covid (season), we should have won. We didn’t. We won while at Alabama down there and played sloppy but won in overtime with a rub route. We took the lead two years ago early … but I think that was Jayden Daniels’ coming out. I don’t think people realized how good he was . He throws a ball and we should pick it and we don’t and they score on it. After that, he started taking off and becoming an elite player that he is. Those are some of my memories.

Q: Thoughts on your RB room this week…

Kiffin: They were beat up coming into the game. Both of them. We’re going to continue to look at people and continue to look at that, and find the best ways to win.

Q: Thoughts on linebacker Suntarine Perkins emerging…

Kiffin: It’s hard as a true freshman to be an impact player especially learning a new position. That’s challenging. Now, he’s playing more one spot and he’s really productive. He’s a really good player and a really awesome kid.

Q: Can a loss be good for a team to reset?

Kiffin: In loss, in games or life, you figure out a lot about yourself or your team. So, yeah, it can be very defining. They can both ways. They don’t always work. They can spiral. …