'We got to coach better': Lane Kiffin knows the woes with the Ole Miss offense starts up front

The Alabama week is officially in the books after Sunday’s media availability with Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Monday brought about the next challenge in LSU.

Kiffin wanted to add a third press conference, of sorts, in as many days with the idea being to completely flush the previous game and make Monday’s availability solely looking ahead to the following Saturday’s opponent.

That is all well and good but coming of the loss to the Crimson Tide is one that is hard to completely close the proverbial book on and just move forward as if it was a Mercer or a similar opponent of the like.

In that vein there were still some lingering questions for Kiffin to answer. Mostly about the performance of the offense in Tuscaloosa, which has been a very hot topic the last 36 hours.

During the Sunday zoom session Kiffin broached the topic of play-calling and how that process evolves throughout the week. On Monday he was a little more honest about where the Ole Miss offense is heading into week five.

“We got to get better,” Kiffin said, speaking specifically about the play of the offensive line. “We got to coach better. Involve different schemes, different things.

“The running game’s interesting. You’ll have these games and all of a sudden they’ll pop and have a bunch of explosive runs. We just got to all go to work and figure out a way. It’s not like we’re a program that hasn’t ran the ball or doesn’t know how to run the ball. We need to really get back to that.”

One way for the run game to open up, beyond the offensive line improving in its blocking, is for the passing game to become a more consistent threat.

Jordan Watkins and Dayton Wade have become the lone weapons for Ole Miss at the receiver spot due to attrition and the injuries sustained to a room that preached depth in camp. Tre Harris returned and Zakhari Franklin made his season debut on Saturday, both coming off surgeries.

Tight end Caden Prieskorn also made his Ole Miss debut coming off a surgery. Despite not having those three for three games, or two games in Harris’ case, the younger guys have not gotten a look, or taken a step up.

That includes freshman Ayden Williams, though Kiffin is optimistic about his involvement moving forward.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries out there and Ayden was doing great and actually got sick and missed some time,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got to get him back involved because he’s got the chance to be a really special player like we saw in camp. Hopefully this will be the week.”

Ole Miss has to get off the mat and welcome in No. 13 LSU to Oxford, which Kiffin spoke on the challenges of.

Last year in Baton Rouge quarterback Jayden Daniels and linebacker Harold Perkins, Jr. had sort of a coming out party in the Tigers 45-20 win, starting the eventual negative snowball effect to the Rebels 2022 season.

Daniels threw for over 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns while rushing for 121 yards and three touchdowns in last year’s meeting. Kiffin is still in the early stages of game-planning but sees Daniels as a bigger threat this year.

“(Daniels is) playing great. Playing better than he was a year ago at that time,” Kiffin said. “Gets really hot, completes a lot of passes. Hard to bring down. So, I don’t know that (our defense) is in better position (this year), but we’re going to need a really good game plan or play really well.”

Kiffin and defensive coordinator Pete Golding used freshman linebacker Suntarine Perkins as a spy last weekend against Jalen Milroe with much success in the first half. With Daniels being a similar threat, if not more so than Milroe, Kiffin did not let on that Perkins would make that a permanent role this season.

Or some gamesmanship is afoot, again, this week.

“That was specific for who we were playing. That was like playing Michael Vick,” Kiffin said. “So dynamic taking off with the ball and running with it. Most guys can’t catch him. That was a very specific plan for that quarterback and that offensive play calling. I wouldn’t think that would be used again.”