Lane Kiffin sees Ole Miss' additions on offense as the 'poster child of the transfer portal'

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin can be a lightning rod at times with his comments on hot-button college football topics or just his antics on Twitter.

One moniker Kiffin earned over the offseason is one he may view as a badge of honor when it comes to how he handled the transfer portal.

Kiffin was unofficially dubbed the ‘Portal King’ over the winter with the way Ole Miss landed several highly valued players in the transfer portal, especially on offense.

Kiffin and his staff managed to pull Southern California transfers Michael Trigg and Jaxson Dart out of the portal in January.

Prior to them, Kiffin started rebuilding the Ole Miss running back’s room when TCU transfer running back Zach Evans chose Ole Miss over other suitors.

Those are just three of the splash transfer commitments Ole Miss garnered to bolster its offense in 2022, leading to the program having one of the top transfer classes this past recruiting cycle.

“Our offensive skill (group) would probably be the poster child of the transfer portal,” Kiffin said. “The positions of losing so many guys and so many (others) coming in over one year time. A lot of work to do.”

Related: LISTEN: The biggest recruiting weekend in modern Ole Miss football history? You better believe it.

Dart is in a highly contested quarterback battle with Luke Altmyer, which surprised some after the hype Dart received coming over from USC to Ole Miss.

Trigg is going to make a splash instantly as he will be view as one of the top tight end targets along with Casey Kelly.

Evans comes in, along with SMU transfer Ulysses Bentley IV to help replenish a running back room that lost its top three rushers from a season ago. There is little doubt Evans will not be the starting back entering fall camp and heading into the season in September.

“Zach has made some really big plays at times over his career,” Kiffin said. “Obviously a highly-recruited player coming out. Had a good spring with him. We have almost a whole new room there.”

Now Kiffin and staff must work to figure out the best way to plug in 17 new transfer additions.

It is the new challenge every college football coach faces in the ever-changing landscape that is the transfer portal. Especially now with reports the NCAA is toying with the idea of waiving a one-year sit out penalty for all transfers.

Rosters will not be the same in March as they were in the previous December any longer with players able to play musical chairs with other teams.

With all of this comes the task of trying to find continuity and a culture of consistent success, knowing the 11 players on the field might not be wearing that uniform for more than a couple years.

“You have to figure that out,” Kiffin said. “That may be less plays even that are in your playbook. Because you have to simplify because you have so many new players coming in and out. It’s a huge set of challenges.”

There were few who did recruiting and the portal better than Kiffin and Ole Miss and how they integrated social media.

Seeing a recruit and Kiffin standing next to or in a Rolls Royce or other exotic car became customary as coveted players made their way to Oxford for visits, both official and unofficial.

Sometimes Kiffin handled the driving himself.

To the Sip? @Lane_Kiffin pic.twitter.com/a1CC6zVDVG

— Jaylon Robinson (@jayf1ash) April 24, 2022

All of this is an example of the changing tides in how the recruiting world and how programs must adapt or get left behind.

For Kiffin, it looks as if he has grasped how to play the game of the brave new world and found success quickly in doing so.

“Yeah, ideally you shouldn’t be picking places out of what your photo shoot is or what car they’re taking pictures in,” Kiffin said. “There’s a lot of things I wish were different. But it is what it is. (Alabama head) coach (Nick) Saban wants rules changed about hurry-up offense. Well, he adapted.

“We don’t sit around and worry about that. We try to be creative. We kind of have a saying: We don’t think outside the box, we just create a new box. If that’s what kids care about and look at, we don’t do things the way they were done before. I think that’s how we would operate anywhere, but especially at Ole Miss you need to be that way to have a chance.”

Related: Chuck’s Closer Look: The ABCs of the 2022 Ole Miss football team, Part III