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First early kickoff of the season? Not a problem for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin

11by:Jake Thompson•10/31/23•

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NCAA Football: Vanderbilt at Mississippi
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin walks down the Walk of Champions prior to the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

Through the first eight games of the season Ole Miss has not started any earlier than 2:30 p.m. but that is changing this week.

For the first time the No. 11 Rebels (7-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) will have the early slot with an 11 a.m. CT kickoff time when it hosts Texas A&M on Saturday. The Aggies (5-3, 3-2) will be experiencing their fourth early kickoff in its first nine games.

With the start to its season Ole Miss has managed to avoid the early games this year with marquee SEC matchups helping provide reason for prime time or CBS television slots. Though the Rebels could only dodge the traditional ‘Jefferson Pilot’ game — for those of us privileged enough to enjoy that era — for so long.

Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin is not worried about the sudden change to losing all Saturday to prepare and wait for kickoff. No head coach should be bothered by the 11 a.m. slot as it is not some new invention to the college football schedule.

Ole Miss is also well prepared for this Saturday due to Kiffin opting to make his team early risers.

“I don’t know. I always thought we would play well. We’re a morning format team, so we practice every day early in the morning,” Kiffin said on Monday. “The kids are here at 6, 6:30 in the morning every day. We’re already off of the field now [at noon]. The majority of people are more traditional, old school, afternoon practice. I would think, body clock-wise, this would benefit us more in these early games. The other day you said we played well in road night games, which I didn’t realize, so who knows. These guys, I was thinking it was in our favor, but (Texas A&M) just got used to it because they just played one a week ago, so who knows.”

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The clock advantage might be lost against the Aggies but Ole Miss has the mental advantage in the series.

Winners of the last two against Texas A&M, Ole Miss has not lost under Kiffin. The two teams did not play in shortened SEC-only 2020 season due to the game being postponed once and then canceled altogether because of COVID-19 cases within each program.

But when it comes to this particular team Kiffin has been proactive in reminding his players the type of talent they will be lining up against this Saturday when Ole Miss tries for its fifth straight SEC victory.

If No. 1 Georgia looming next weekend was any kind of distraction Kiffin took care of it Monday morning.

“No. This team is way too talented to look ahead. If they were, they got woken up this morning when we showed them the film,” Kiffin said. “I know I’ve said it a number of times, but this is like a NFL roster of talent collected and put together. And, no, it’s even harder to beat them than it was the last two years because now they have Bobby Petrino running the offense. This is a really, really, really elite, talented team that very easily could be a top-five team in the country.”

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