‘We’re doing something right’: Ole Miss drew the largest student crowd ever for Mercer
Lane Kiffin has made a habit of breaking records at Ole Miss.
The Rebels scored 73 points in a rout of Mercer — the seventh-most in school history and highest single-game total of the Kiffin era. The mark is the 18th highest all-time in the SEC.
Ole Miss again amassed at least 600 yards of total offense. The Rebels have now done so 21 times under Kiffin. Prior to Kiffin’s arrival in December of 2019, Ole Miss had managed just 16 such games. The Rebels have been playing since 1893.
But one record, in particular, had Kiffin’s attention this week on RebTalk, Kiffin’s weekly coach’s show with David Kellum, the voice of Ole Miss athletics.
The largest student crowd ever assembled for an Ole Miss football game took in the blowout win over the Bears, including a record for freshmen of over 4,000.
“We’re doing something right with the freshmen here,” Kiffin, in his fourth Ole Miss season, said. “We’re raising them right.
“Now, if we could just get the older people …”
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Kiffin at Ole Miss has never shied away from making jokes about game-day attendance.
He turned heads last October with his criticism of what he felt were insufficient crowds for games, specifically in second halves, comparing them to high school stadiums.
“When you come back out, run out of the tunnel and it looks like a high school game playing in a college stadium, you can’t let that affect you,” Kiffin said at the time. “There’s psychology to that, obviously.
“There’s home-field advantage for a reason. When it goes the other way, you kind of have that feeling that, ‘Man, are we still really playing in a game here?’”
The Rebel faithful that week responded with the sixth-largest crowd in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium history, as Ole Miss took down Kentucky, at the time ranked in the Top 15 in the country.
But it looks like the students are taking things a step further in 2023-24.
Additionally, the team’s first stroll down the Walk of Champions drew thousands.
The Walk of Champions is the team’s parade-like pregame route through the Grove each Saturday. It occurs hours before each kickoff.
“I think it’s a great tradition,” Kiffin said. “I wish it was a little shorter. It got longer, too. You know, ‘cause there’s construction. Our players are kind of sweating by the time they get through it.
“But, no, it’s really cool. It’s neat to be that close to the fans. It’s really great. I just wish the fans would all come into the stadium after the walk and just stay. The Grove is awesome, but we’d like everybody to come in the stadium.”
Next up for Kiffin’s Rebels is a road trip to Tulane. Kickoff in New Orleans is set for Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
