Lane Kiffin: Ole Miss QB play ‘really, really strong’ in full-team Saturday scrimmage

Ole Miss fourth-year head coach Lane Kiffin on Tuesday held hits most recent question-and-answer session with local media to address the Rebels’ continued push to their 2023 season opener against Mercer. 

Ole Miss has reached the postseason in each of the last three seasons under Kiffin. They’re a consensus Top 25 team featuring nearly 50 newcomers — the majority of which are transfers. Ole Miss in the off-season signed the second-largest transfer class in the country. Seven of its 11 current starters on defense are transfers.

Ole Miss is in its fourth week of preseason training camp.

“We’re in school, so it’s a little bit more normal format as far as us having the kids in the morning, afternoon and night with school work,” Kiffin began. “One of the things about when your school starts this early, at other places you have to get into that sooner and the distractions that come with that. 

“That’s a challenge outside of the Xs and Os that always comes, especially this week.”

Here’s a full transcript of everything Kiffin had to say.

On his impressions of the Ole Miss QBs from Saturday’s scrimmage

“I thought quarterback play was really, really strong Saturday. I thought the week before the defense in general had a really good Saturday. This Saturday the offense did with the pass scheme and running game. There were much more points, much more yards with the average per carry. I thought the quarterbacks did some really good things. Two older guys made significant plays they want to take back, but I saw some really good things. I think we’re in a great position with multiple guys that can go into a game and help us win.”

On finalizing personnel

“I think that comes more this weekend coming up. We’re kind of still in a training camp, practice mode as far as going against each other a lot with some Mercer stuff. I think we’ll have a much better feel of that starting next week.” 

On tempo during Ole Miss’ scrimmage on Saturday

“I think it was okay. I think that’s always challenging when it’s not a real game to get them to play really fast and take advantage of the situations. Also, you’ve practiced more coming into a game. They practice Thursday and Friday and then play Saturday. That’s not normal that you do that. That’s kind of always the case and it’s always a challenge with tempo and heavy legs.”

On Grove Collective Day

“Extremely encouraged. You guys know from covering me that I’m very real on the good, bad and ugly. I share this with the players and with you guys about things and concerns over time here. It’s been awesome what the collective has done, what Walker Jones has done and what the donors have done. I mentioned that yesterday. I kind of came up with that Ole Miss is kind of like the Green Bay Packers of college football, especially in the SEC. Not the biggest town, not the most alumni. To see them come together like they have, really makes me think of Green Bay and how it’s like shareholders holding the team. I said it yesterday but without that, we’re not going anywhere. I don’t care how great of assistant coaches you hire, who your head coach is, any of that. You don’t have this, like you see in professional sports where you don’t have resources, you don’t win. 

“That’s why I took a lot of heat a couple of years ago when I said NIL and getting a collective done right and funded properly is way more important than anything else nowadays. It is. It’s more important than the size of the weight rooms, the size of stadiums, and how many Heisman trophies you have. I don’t think I’m a wizard, but if you didn’t see that coming – that 17, 18-year-olds are going to make decisions once salaries were included – that was going to be the number one factor then you missed the vote on that. Now we’re seeing it and everyone is seeing it and talking about it. I’ve been honest for a couple of years and to see our fans and donors respond like that is awesome because I’m just telling you that we wouldn’t go anywhere and you would not be enjoying going to games if this wasn’t in place.”

RELATED: On3’s Andy Wittry and how Ole Miss’ Grove Collective raised $1.7 million in a day

On defensive practices being different this fall

“I think it’s really competitive when you have a scheme that’s been tested over a long time. I mean it’s a little variable difference from Alabama but similar to the Alabama/Georgia defensive structure. So that presents a lot of problems and has a lot of answers to the problems you present to them so that makes everybody better when you have that type of defensive structure. How did Reggie [Hughes] do because he told me today he was very nervous. He said it was his first interview and said, ‘I was really nervous, Coach.’ Did he do all right?”

On high expectations for Ole Miss true freshman LB Suntarine Perkins

“They are what they are. No different than a first-round draft pick. You’re not going to change them so don’t worry about them. Just worry about what you can control which is preparing really well and learning the system and taking advantage of the opportunities you get which he’s done so far.” 

On overall depth on the Ole Miss offense

“It’s much better in the skilled positions. The offensive line is not necessarily a big difference but a little better. At the skilled positions, especially tight end and receiver, I think we feel a lot better about our backups.”

On the importance of depth in Kiffin’s fast-tempo offense

“Yeah, for sure. When you don’t it shows up. Look at our scoring in the fourth quarter. We didn’t all of a sudden not know how to coach or we didn’t learn how to coach in the first quarter. That’s a product of going fast and not having depth to where you are over-playing players unfortunately and it wears on them. You used to be able to get away with it some because the defense was tired too but now defenses have figured out how to rotate all their defensive spots so if you don’t have depth on offense, you’re not rotating. Now you’re playing 87-some plays and those guys are playing 40 plays each. So in the fourth quarter, there is a difference there that’s why. To do the system right you need depth, especially at receiver.”

On Caleb Warren at left guard

“You guys know he’s played them before — center and guard. Always looking to find the best five and we also move guys to foresee things that could potentially happen with injuries to make sure we are protected also.”

On progress of Ole Miss, as a team, compared to this time last year

“I think we’re ahead from a full-team standpoint. I was concerned, whether I vocalized it or not, about that team. I’ve always said that team was probably the most talented room of the three years but not going to be necessarily the best team. They didn’t do certain things and I think we showed that at the end of the year once things start to go not so well. It’s easy to be a certain way in life or as a team until adversity hits then it’s tougher when things aren’t going your way. I feel better about this team for when those situations happen.”