Cayden Lee as Ole Miss battles for College Football Playoff: "It's about us"

Ole Miss wide receiver Cayden Lee is battling through some injuries as he looks to help the Rebels to the College Football Playoff. This week, the budding star spoke with the media about getting Tre Harris back, how the team deals with negative energy and more.

Here’s some of the Q&A with him from that media session:

Over these last three games without Tre Harris, have you felt the offense has kind of had to evolve or did evolve without him out there?

Cayden Lee: “Yeah, you know, Tre is a great player. We all know that. But, you know, we just had to keep what was going. And we couldn’t fall off, because we wouldn’t be in a position that we are now. I feel like the offense is in a really good position and, when Tre comes back, I feel like it’s going to make us even better.”

Jordan Watkins said yesterday that you guys have basically treated every game since LSU like it’s a playoff game. How has that mentality brought out the best in this team?

Cayden Lee: “You know, we know that we know we control our own destiny. But we also know every game, it really is a playoff game. Because, you know, three losses, you can’t do a lot with that anymore. So every game is a playoff game. Every day we got to come in and work. And we just got to keep winning.”

How much do you guys pay attention to rankings that come out tonight, or do you stay away from that kind of stuff?

Cayden Lee: “The rankings are cool, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. We’re ranked one in the country, and then we go out and lose, so it doesn’t matter. The only ranking that matters is the one at the end of the year.”

Cayden, Lane had mentioned that you’ve been banged up the past couple of weeks. How are you feeling after the bye? 

Cayden Lee: “I’m feeling a lot better than I was. I’m dealing with a couple of things, but I feel like the bye gave me some time to get some rest, get some massages, get some work done with some people in Florida. So I feel pretty good.”

What did you see from Florida on Saturday that kind of sticks out to you?

Cayden Lee: “Their defensive line. They have a really impressive defensive line. They play with a lot of confidence. They were the superior team, and I feel like they felt like they could win that game. So we got to go in strong.”

Just from your perspective, what has it been like for Tre these weeks sitting on the sidelines?

Cayden Lee: “You know, just as it would be for anybody, everybody wants to be out there. You know, he’s probably been hard on himself. I know he’s been doing a lot behind the scenes just trying to get back and trying to make this team better.”

For next week, I’m doing something on the Egg Bowl moving off Thanksgiving. Just curious from the player’s perspective, do you like playing on Thanksgiving or is it nice to get that day off? How do you take that news?

Cayden Lee: “Well, you know, for us, it won’t be a day off. We’ll still be here because it’s the day after Thanksgiving so we’ll still be here. But playing on Thanksgiving, I feel like it’s a privilege because everyone in the country is going to watch the game, turn it on with their family and stuff like that.”

For a young player like yourself, I guess how many games did you need to get ready for like a road SEC atmosphere like you’re gonna see on Saturday?

Cayden Lee: “I wouldn’t say it’s a number of games. I feel like I just trust my training. I trust my preparation. I do a lot behind the scenes as well. So I just feel really confident when I go out there and I trust myself. So I feel like I’ll go out there and do what I need to do.” 

Do you feed off like negative energy from other fan bases? 

Cayden Lee: “No, I mean, I feel like it’s all about us. We’re gonna go out and I feel like we set the tempo, you know, we want to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. You know that metaphor. So we got to set the temperature.”