Ole Miss Morning-After: MSU | Lane Kiffin’s historic 2023 Rebels should be in a New Year's Six
Ole Miss football’s 2023 regular season, if you can believe it, has drawn to a close following the No. 12-ranked Rebels’ 17-7 win at in-state rival Mississippi State in the annual Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving night.
“Really proud of our players. I thought our guys played great defense basically the whole night,” fourth-year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said, in his postgame press conference. Ole Miss finished 10-2, including a 6-2 mark in SEC games. Kiffin joined the legendary Johnny Vaught as the only Ole Miss coaches with multiple 10-win seasons.
Kiffin continued, “Played really well in the second half running the football, and then ended the game running the ball. We put ourselves in a lot of poor positions by continuing to punt, but we were playing to our defense at times, too, and being conservative because I thought that was a good match-up for us in the game, and once the game got going, really felt that way.
“We weren’t perfect by any means. There were a couple of plays that could have made it really easy that we screwed up. Excited to get the trophy back. That was really painful last year to lose that. Kind of thought maybe if you’re ever going to lose it, you know, once we learned later on that was (former Mississippi State) coach (Mike) Leach’s last game, maybe that was meant to be. I miss him. I missed him today. We’ll never forget him.
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“But I’m obviously glad we got it back to us, where we hope to keep it for a while.”
What a season it was.
The Rebels secured their second-ever 10-win regular season and second under Kiffin. A win in their bowl game — be it a New Year’s Six or somewhere in Florida, such as the Citrus — would lock in Ole Miss’ first 11-win season in program history.
Ben Garrett (Ole Miss Spirit/On3) and former Ole Miss offensive lineman Bradley Sowell have all bases covered in an all-new Ole Miss Morning-After Show. They also hand out Helmet Stickers after a sleepy rivalry showdown, as well as post-regular-season awards and so much more.
