Lane Kiffin continuing to build culture at Ole Miss while mixing in new players, staff
There are many new issues head coaches are faced with as the transfer portal and the NIL continue to evolve and alter the college football landscape. One aspect that might be forgotten about in all the major talking points is currently one Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss is dealing with.
Securing one of the top transfer classes this past winter provided a lot of pomp and circumstance and positive vibes throughout Oxford and the Ole Miss campus. But now Kiffin must work to find the magic formula that make all the new faces gel with the old ones.
That starts in a couple weeks when Ole Miss opens fall camp and the 2022 preseason begins in earnest.
“We got a lot of work to do when get to camp,” Kiffin said. “This portal thing is really good and really bad, like everything. It’s really good on paper and plug in players like free agency but you got culture issues because you got kids coming from all over the place. Different habits and styles and the way that they think. So, we got a lot of work do at training camp. It’s a little bit unusual. It’s not just Xs and Os.”
What has helped get a jump start on growing that culture is getting nearly all of the transfers on campus back in January and through spring drills.
The Zach Evans, Michael Triggs, Jaxon Darts and Jordan Watkins have already gotten around four weeks, plus summer workouts, to gel and get acclimated to Kiffin and his staff’s philosophies at Ole Miss.
Still, the transfer portal is a fluid thing. Open nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week — with some minor limitations and regulations here and there.
With that comes with the potential for a player to become a late arrival into the program at the end of summer. The flip side of this coin also means players who were already on the roster could choose to up and transfer to a different school.
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The days of a constant four-to-three year culture of players staying at one program are long gone.
“Normally it takes longer because you get kids and most your freshman don’t play a lot necessarily and stuff,” Kiffin said. “Leaders become your older players and they’ve been in your systems for a while. Now they haven’t and they’re coming in the spring and even some just come in late. We dealt with that a little bit last year. It’s just a different challenge.”
New players on the field is not the only challenge Kiffin, and nearly all of college football programs, face heading into August.
Ole Miss saw its coaching staff undergo a facelift as well. Kiffin has a new co-offensive and co-defensive coordinators in Charlie Weis, Jr. and Maurice Crum, respectively.
There is familiarity between Kiffin and Weis as the duo has spent time at Alabama and then Florida Atlantic together. Still, there is the adjustment period that always comes with a new coach – for the players and the head coach.
“Charlie has been with us two places before, have always thought he was way ahead of the game not just because he started young with his dad, but his mind is really unique and special,” Kiffin said. “He can really memorize things like no other. We’re excited to have him in there and be able to work with him, put together a really exciting offense.”
