From the Locker Room: Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin, Cedric Johnson and Jerrion Ealy talk win over LSU

No. 12 Ole Miss moved to 6-1 (3-1 SEC) on the season with a 31-17 win over rival LSU (4-4, 2-3) on Saturday. Head coach Lane Kiffin, defensive end Cedric Johnson and running back Jerrion Ealy all met the media afterwards. Here’s what they had to say …

HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN

Opening statement: “Good win. Crowd was awesome today. They were here early. Phenomenal energy. I thought our players fed off of it. We didn’t play great. A little bit sloppy, and kind of surprised to be up 10 at half like we were. Really good end of the half there, going down and getting a touchdown in two-minute. I think changed a lot and played a really good third quarter. Really pleased with our players, starting with the defense. I thought those guys, once we settled down early, played great. Held these guys to whatever it was, 70 yards rushing, for a team that ran the ball so well last week against Florida. I have to remind myself that’s the same LSU team that beat Florida seven days ago. To not just win, but comfortably win, up 21 in the fourth quarter when we started to slow it down, is pretty neat. And I don’t think we’ve beaten them in five or six years. Hope our fans are pretty excited about that. Puts us at 6-1. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to get our players back healthy on offense. Matt (Corral), himself, isn’t healthy. You can see him limping around out there. Does not have his usual group of weapons that he had early on. To have all those guys down — receivers, tight ends and offensive linemen — and still be able to beat LSU like that is really neat. We’d all take that at the beginning of the year.”

On the defense: “Few weeks ago, sitting here and really not stopping Arkansas at all until the two-point play. I think Jake Springer has a lot to do with it, not just as a great player, but feeding off of him like the play he made at Tennessee. He’s kind of like Matt on offense. Players feed off of him. That certainly helps. We’re playing better. When you play a slow-down offense like that, your guys can do a better job of pass rush like you saw today instead of having to play 80, 90 snaps against tempo. They see one of the fastest offenses in the country every day, and then the last two weeks, playing two of the three fastest offenses in the country. They were probably pretty happy to see someone normal.”

On the atmosphere: “It was cool. I don’t see it the whole game, obviously, but I glanced up before kickoff and it was full. Seemed like there was a presence on third down. It was awesome to see. That’s how it should be. The game was kind of a little bit dead at some point, slow-moving, but I thought the fans were really good today. And we actually punted on a fourth down. I think I heard some boos, actually. I didn’t know what to do. The book actually said don’t punt, but we only had seven points and we were stopping them. I went against it and punted ‘em deep and our defense got us the ball back three-and-out. Went against analytics and it worked.”

On the goal-line stand: “This game did not start good. It did not feel good. It didn’t feel good offensively. Matt was a little bit off. We were struggling with the rush. Didn’t feel good defensively. We had said all week, ‘OK, they’re going to come with good energy. They just came off the Florida win and everything. If we could get a lead, maybe the game could go like the game went.’ I do think it went that way in the third quarter once we got the lead. That was the stop. Huge momentum. We were backed up there and Snoop (Conner) ran us out with a couple of runs, which was really good.”

On if LSU was the best the defense has looked all season: “It’s fun to be the head coach when the defense is playing good. You can slow things down, and you don’t have that feeling like you have to score all the time like we’ve had at times here. I thought our defense started this way in the Louisville game, shutout at half. I think we’re back to that, and like I said, Springer makes a big difference. When we can get off the field on third down, like 4 of 12 today, now we don’t get worn down, because we don’t have great depth. When we can stay fresh and let our two defensive ends rush, we’re pretty good.”

On Jerrion Ealy: “I think he opened his stride up. I think he had not been doing that. He’d been stopping his feet. We told him this week, ‘You’re a speed back and you’re not playing like it. You’re not really letting it loose.’ We said it right on that (39-yard) run. (Jeff) Lebby, Kevin Smith, like, ‘That’s what it’s supposed to look like.’ When you’ve got a speed back, it’s supposed to look like that. There’s the hole and he’s gone. That’s what we were hoping would happen. He seems to be back, and it’s at the right time. Without these receivers, these guys have to step up. They ran really well against an extra guy in the box.”

On the school honoring Eli Manning: “It was awesome to have him on the walk (of champions). I joked with him, I wore his jersey on the walk, I was like super fan. I felt like I was going to the (New York) Giants game, on the bus, going to the game. It’s awesome. I’ve been around him, but not that much. To be around him today and see how humble he is. Called him this week to ask him about what jerseys, if he’d like to pick our jerseys, and he’s like, ‘No, man, whatever the players want.’ That’s rare. A great player like that to be that humble and wanting to help others was awesome to see. Really cool day for him. The end zones were awesome. We just love the Mannings.”

DE CEDRIC JOHNSON

On the Ole Miss pass rush, which produced five sacks and seven tackles for loss: “Just been switching up our movement schemes. Doing a little more of going into gaps and trying to open up different gaps for us to hit. It’s really worked. We’ve been practicing really hard and trying different things. It’s starting to work out.”

On the sold-out Vaught-Hemingway Stadium crowd: “It was crazy. It was exactly what I expected coming off our last game at Tennessee. That was a hostile environment, but it’s nice to be in our hometown and play in front of our fans.”

On allowing just 17 points, tied for the fewest all season: “We’re just playing together, starting to play for each other and playing as a complete unit. It’s starting to work out.”

On the fourth-down stop and how it provided a boost for the rest of the game: “After that happened, everybody just came together and settled in. Just got to what we know how to do. Play with each other, play for each other and give as much effort as we can.”

On his strip-sack: “The tackle pulled and I played into the next guy and kept bending the edge. I don’t even know what I hit on him to get the sack. I’m just glad I got it.”

On recovering Sam Williams’ forced fumble: “He was just happy that I was there to recover it. He didn’t even say too much. He just knew I was going to be there.”

On if the LSU win was the most complete game the Rebels have played this season as a team: “Yes, I believe so. I believe we played a complete game. Obviously we’re missing a few people, but we’re going to get better overall. I feel we played together as a unit, as one — offense, defense, special teams. We all played to the best of our ability. We’re going to continue get better and better.”

On the confidence of the defense after back-to-back strong outings: “It feels great. Going into these next few games, we know we’ve got more tough opponents coming up. It just feels good going in and having confidence.”

More on the fourth-down stop: “It swung (momentum) tremendously. If they would’ve got that, a touchdown, I feel like it would have slowed us down, but I feel like we could have dug our way out.”

RB JERRION EALY

On his 36-yard touchdown run: “It was very big. We needed points. Third-and-19, why not? The ball’s in my hands, and I haven’t really gotten in the end zone much this year, so I made sure I got in there right then.”

On if the LSU game was the best he’s felt all year: “Yes, it was. Just mentally and physically, I was fresh. Kind of changed my routine up before the game. I’m going to stick to that one.”

On if the last couple of weeks weighed on him: “No, it was more I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t trust my speed, I didn’t trust my ability that I have. Today, I just said, ‘Forget it, I’m just going to trust it. Whatever happens, happens.’”

On the Ole Miss running stable: “Nobody knows (how dangerous) we are, because nobody’s seen it yet. You always see two of the three. You’ve haven’t seen three of the three yet. When that time comes, you’ll know.”

On the short-yardage success of the RBs: “We did how we normally do. We get the job done whenever we get the job done. At the end of the day, that’s the plan, get the job done. I think we did great.”