Everything Lane Kiffin said after the first Ole Miss spring football practice

Ole Miss football opened spring practices on Tuesday morning, followed by media sessions with head coach Lane Kiffin and select players. 

The Rebels are replacing over 72 percent of their lineup from last season, when they won 10 or more games for the third time in four years. Among the first-year starters is Austin Simmons, who is taking over for Jaxson Dart as Ole Miss QB1. 

Kiffin touched on the development of Simmons and so much more in his post-practice press conference. Here’s everything he had to say.

OPENING STATEMENT

Kiffin: All right, first off, exciting time for the athletic department here, you know, for both basketball teams to make the tournament. It’s never been done here before. And, you know, making it with 20-plus wins. Really, really exciting to see some great coaching going on. 

Really excited. Excited for our university to be at that place this time of year. So, best of luck to those teams, players and coaches. You know, should be exciting to watch. 

I thought, first day, a lot of new moving parts out there, probably like most of the country or college football now. So, you know, a lot of guys to watch, a lot of film to watch on this and a lot of rotations of different players. It was good to be out there. 

Got a lot of challenges ahead of us, and a lot of new starters at different places. Continuing to figure out a roster and evolving schedule that has another free agency coming up. We’re just trying to make the best of it and work through it.

ON LEANING ON PAST EXPERIENCE TO BREAK IN NEW PLAYERS

Kiffin: You learn as much as possible from a schematic standpoint, but getting them to spend a lot of time with each other. And a lot of team activities, a lot of speakers, a lot of culture talk. 

Just like the meeting yesterday. You’ve basically got to have a meeting like the first spring in COVID. I guess the first fall, first time we actually practiced when we got here five years ago, six years ago, whatever it was, to start with that approach. 

It’s a brand new program just because there’s so many, not just new pieces, but there’s so many new pieces that already think a certain way because they’re from different schools coming in. 

It’s not like they’re just all high school kids coming in. I think every year, now more than ever, it’s a brand new approach as if we haven’t had the team before. 

ON AUSTIN SIMMONS

Kiffin: He’s done a really good job spending time with players. You know, he’s always out trying to throw extra with them. He’s got a hard act to follow. 

He doesn’t need to be Jaxson (Dart); everybody’s different. But that was a really good one for him to learn from — to see how Jaxson took the whole team in. I see him trying to do that, but at the same time, he’s going to be his own person, too. 

ON THE SECONDARY

Kiffin: That’s a work in progress. New pieces, some not fully healthy. This spring will be very valuable for that and depending on how those evaluations go whether we have to look at other places also. 

ON THE SECOND PORTAL WINDOW COMING UP

Kiffin: That’s what these practices are for. Like I said to the team, we’re in the NFL. We have to have these practices like OTA days and then there’s going to be a free agency. A lot will have to do with how they perform, whether we bring in other people or whether they’ll even be here. 

I don’t like how that sounds, but that’s the way it is, with the benefit that the players wanted, which is well-deserved that they’re paid. Like pros that way that this whole thing’s become. 

There’s nothing really college about it. It’s like the pros. You also get cut there, too. With every benefit has some cost, too. 

ON TEAM LEADERSHIP

Kiffin: I think Cayden Lee’s done a really good job. You have some older players that have come in new from other places. 

I’ve noticed (Lee) do a really good job. Tyler Banks, really helping guys in transition coming in. So that’s been good to see. There’ll still be a lot of work with that also. 

ON THE RUNNING BACKS

Kiffin: It’s very competitive there, and that’s good. It’s a position we’ve got to perform better than we did last year. Went through self-scouting in the off-season. That was really an area of concern of how we performed, especially later in the year. 

ON THE NEW-LOOK WIDE RECEIVERS

Kiffin: Body types, it’s a really good looking group and has a lot of length and really good movements. This time of year when you lose a lot of players, a lot of times you go out there and there’s concerns. Don’t get to just fill up every position the way you wish it was. 

We lost a lot of players at a lot of sports, including receiver. I’m really excited about the players that came in. When you go out there and you feel like, okay, we got a really good shot out here. Now, they’ve got to develop and play tougher with the quarterbacks. But it’s a really good-looking room.

ON POTENTIAL POSITIONS OF INTEREST IN THE PORTAL

Kiffin: I’m not going to get into that. It’s early. It’s one practice. YOut of respect for the guys out there working hard we’re just going to continue to work with the guys we have and we’ll figure it out as we get into that window. 

ON RB KEWAN LACY

Kiffin: Really high-end player. When I say high-end, like, look at players and there’s some that can only go so far. Because of his height/speed ratio and the way he moves he could be really elite. So, that’s really good to have. 

‘Cause sometimes we’ll get guys and they can only go so far. They’ll be really good players, but they can’t really be great. He’s got a chance to do that. You can only make guys so much faster and bigger. I’m really excited that he got here second time around. 

ON THE DEFENSIVE LINE

Kiffin: That was a really unique group that came together a year ago and played as well as anybody in the country. Statistically, did play better than anybody in the country in sacks and tackles for loss. That would be hard to duplicate. But it is a really good room that has a lot of potential. 

ON THE HIRING OF JAMES CRAIG AS AN ASSISTANT

Kiffin: It was good addition. Coached in the SEC, coached in the NFL and his daughter goes to school here, too. 

We kind of have a big family up there with our staff and all the people involved. It’s a really cool feeling, and I’ve been saying that for a while now. We’re going on our sixth year here. So many connections and things. 

It’s really good, just like Chris Kiffin the year before, Joe Judge. To add these guys that have NFL experience is great.

ON EVALUATING PLAYER FIT IN THE PORTAL

Kiffin: Yeah, I think that’s really challenging as part of the eval.  The NFL screws it up and they have a lot of chances to eval and bring them in for multiple visits and combines and all those meetings. It’s a little more challenging because we just don’t have the ability to spend that much time in the eval with them. But we’re constantly trying to get that information and figure that out as we make the decisions about who to bring here. 

ON THE OLE MISS TIGHT ENDS

Kiffin: That’s a really good combination there of two guys (Dae’Quan Wright and Luke Hasz) that both played extremely well in this conference. Dae’Quan had a great year last year and really came on, especially when he was healthy late in the year. Luke had done a really good job for two years over there (at Arkansas), so it was good to add him.

ON DA’SHAWN WOMACK AND PRINCEWILL UMANMIELEN

Kiffin: I think those two guys both have high ceilings coming in, have good length, ability to rush and run. So that was really important losing so much at defensive end. Defensive tackle, even though we lost a couple of really elite players we also signed a number of high school guys now that are in there and have been developing here. 

It’s really good. Kind of the old-school way of developing players that have stayed, too. Now so many players when they aren’t starting they don’t make it to year two or three. 

ON THE NFL DRAFT REBELS

Kiffin: I think it’s a great class of players that are really good kids. I know this season didn’t end the way we wanted, but those guys played really well and played some dominant football. I’m not gonna go over this over again like I have before, but they won 10 games, all by over double digits. They went 0-3 in one-score games. Somebody said the other day if you played that season in analytics a hundred times there’s probably only a couple that you end up with three losses out of a hundred. 

Those guys did a really good job, really good players. A lot of work putting those guys together to get them to come. I think a lot of them are going to get drafted. I don’t know history of numbers, but I would guess more than has ever been drafted here before. I’m excited for all those guys to get that opportunity.

ON LOSING SO MUCH EXPERIENCE

Kiffin: Yeah, very concerned. I mean, that’s a lot of experience, especially at quarterback. That’s been a concern since the last game. Just working with these guys and continue to try to sign guys to bring in to help that that have started and played other places.