WATCH: Everything Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin had to say in the main ballroom at SEC Media Days
The fourth and final day of SEC Media Days — the premier college football event of the summer — finally brought out the Ole Miss Rebels.
Now-fourth-year head coach Lane Kiffin spoke for nearly 30 minutes at the podium in the main ballroom on Thursday. He also had a more intimate sit-down with local media upon arriving.
Among the topics Kiffin covered was the poor finish to the season for the Rebels a year ago. Ole Miss won seven of its first eight games but lost five of its last six. The Rebels reached the postseason for the third straight year under Kiffin but lost to Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl.
“We’re going into our fourth year here at Ole Miss,” Kiffin began.
“Been a very exciting off-season for us. Really grateful to Keith Carter, our athletic director, and our chancellor, (Glenn) Boyce, for keeping us here and believing in what we’re building here. And our Ole Miss fans and the city of Oxford has been awesome. Excited for this fourth year coming up.
“We were on a really good run coming off the 10-3 season, and last year we were 8-1 with the ball in our hands and a chance to beat Alabama. That was a really good run for a season and nine games there.
“I didn’t do a very good job at the end of the year of keeping our team together. Not as an excuse, but I said it up here a year ago, the challenges when you have such a roster overhaul and you’re so portal-heavy. I’ve always been concerned about culture issues when you do that. One of those challenges is if seasons don’t go great, it’s very hard to keep everybody playing at a high level because expectations were so high.
“Down the stretch there, after the Alabama game, I didn’t do a good enough job of finding a way of keeping our guys playing at a high level. We did not play to our standards towards the end of the season.
“Excited about this season coming up. There’s been a ton of change. Forty new scholarship players.”
