Lane Kiffin is still waiting for that 'complete game' from Ole Miss as it prepares for Auburn

The first half of the season could not have gone much better for No. 13 Ole Miss, minus that setback in Tuscaloosa last month, but Lane Kiffin is still waiting to be completely pleased with his team.

Despite the Rebels having a 5-1 start to the season, 2-1 in Southeastern Conference play, the fourth-year head coach has not seen a satisfactory four-quarter effort from Ole Miss.

Nothing is shocking with that revelation as rarely is a coach fully pleased with his team midway through a season. But with Kiffin the feeling of still waiting for the Rebels to show up for a full 60-minutes is warranted as there have been games where one side of the ball pulls its weight but the other side struggles.

During his weekly appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday Kiffin spoke to that when discussing the Rebels upcoming trip to Auburn this Saturday.

“We’re going to need to go play a complete game,” Kiffin said. “Which would be really good for us to do because I don’t feel like we’ve really done that. We’ve played good in phases at times but would be great to go on the road and put together a complete game in a tough SEC environment.”

This week is a tough ask by Kiffin to expect a full four-quarter effort as the Rebels have historically struggled inside Jordan-Hare Stadium when kickoff is at night, which this Saturday’s is with a 6 p.m. CT start.

Ole Miss is 0-9 overall in the series in night games at Auburn’s home stadium.

Another thing Kiffin is also looking for the Rebels to clean up its pass defense and finding consistency in their run game for the final six games of the season.

Related: Ole Miss looking to make history as it prepares for another night game at ‘magical’ Auburn

Ole Miss is currently 112th in the nation in pass defense, giving up 261.5 yards per game through the air.

Pass coverage has been hit or miss for the Rebels this season and the struggles have been with deep balls. There have been 12 different players in the Ole Miss secondary that has had passes of at least 20 yards caught when they are defending and three of those have been for more than 42 yards.

Another issue has been penalties for the Rebels. Out of 132 FBS teams Ole Miss is tied for 77th in the nation with 42 penalties. Not all have been on the defense or pass interference-related, but enough have been that allowed teams to stay on the field in third-down situations.

“Overall, penalties in all three phases of the game,” Kiffin said when asked what he’d like to clean up for the second half push to the season.

“We’ve just had a lot of penalties. Some have been pre-snap. Some have been lack of discipline, poor decision-making. We need to get a lot better at that.”

Ole Miss could see its pass defense improve with a potential get-right game when it comes to that category. Auburn is currently last in the SEC with its passing offense, averaging 155.8 yards per game and a league-worst six touchdowns.

First-year head coach Hugh Freeze has bounced between two quarterbacks in Robby Ashford and Payton Thorne. Each has played in all six of the Tigers games this season and that streak could continue on Saturday.

Thorne has been the more accurate of the two by completing nearly 61 percent of his passes to Ashford’s 50 percent. The former has thrown for 745 yards while Ashford only has 123 passing yards though his biggest threat is his legs, rushing for 153 yards and a team-high five touchdowns.

“I think the general thing people think is Robby runs and there’s a big difference with Peyton. I think Peyton runs really well, too,” Kiffin said. “He’s really quick and fast and he’s played in a lot of big games over the years and a really good players. They haven’t had the passing success maybe that they would like, but I think it’s a big challenge for us.”