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What has surprised Lane Kiffin the most about the Ole Miss season at its midway point?

11by:Jake Thompson10/19/23

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OLE MISS GEORGIA TECH
The Ole Miss student section has set attendance records at every home game this season. (©Bruce Newman)

Ole Miss is halfway through its season and fresh of the bye week. The No. 13 Rebels resume its schedule on Saturday at Auburn for the final six-game stretch.

With most teams when the midway point is hit have an evaluation period of sorts during the off week to see what needs to be fixed, what is working and what could be tweaked to add new wrinkles the rest of the season.

This same practice took place on Thursday with Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin during his appearance on Reb Talk.

Kiffin was asked to play along with a game of naming what is the best thing, worst thing and most surprising thing to this point of the Rebels season.

When it came to what surprised Kiffin the most through the first six games it might have been an answer that surprised everyone in attendance to his weekly coach’s show.

“The phenomenal fan energy in our stadium,” Kiffin said. “It really has been awesome. …And the students section. Student section has set records.”

Kiffin going with the atmosphere inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium instead any kind of Xs and Os answer was a different tactic with the fourth-year coach of the Rebels.

There has been a love-hate relationship between Kiffin and the Ole Miss fans when it comes to attendance at home games over his three-plus years. This season Rebel fans set a new attendance record at VHS with 66,703 people packed in to watch the 55-49 win over LSU on September 30.

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As for the student section it has set new records every home game this season. In the season opener against Mercer there were 9,262 students scanned in, the largest in single-game history. For the LSU game there were 10,000 students helping make up that record crowd.

Related: Back in the Coach of the Year conversation, Lane Kiffin understands the challenge of winning in the SEC

Kiffin went back to the field for what has been the best and worst thing in the first half of the Ole Miss season.

The best thing that happened, in Kiffin’s eyes, is one that many Ole Miss fans would agree with.

“When we knocked the ball down on the last play against LSU,” Kiffin said to a loud round of applause.

Jayden Daniels pass sailed just out of the reach of his receiver’s stretched out arms and fell in the back of the end zone to seal the Rebels win over the Tigers in that late-September shootout.

Kiffin’s worst thing through the first six games of the Ole Miss season was the easiest and most expected answer of the three.

“The trip to Tuscaloosa,” Kiffin said.

Nobody is going to argue that the Rebels head coach would consider the lone blemish on the season and the 24-10 loss to Alabama the worst thing to happen in the season up to this point.

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