'Worried about what I can control:' Lane Kiffin on fan support ahead of Ole Miss hosting Kentucky
Warranted or not, the topic of fan support at Ole Miss football games has been an underlying storyline through the first three home games of the season.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin brought it to the forefront last week ahead of the Tulsa game, asking for loud atmosphere to help try and disrupt a potent passing offense.
When the game began Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was more than 50 percent full but that number only decreased throughout the Rebels 35-27 victory.
The topic then became louder when images of the stands in the second half showed most of the student section and other portions were essentially empty. This was when Ole Miss was clinging to a one-score lead to hold of a surging Tulsa team in the final quarter.
During his weekly press conference on Monday Kiffin spoke again about the importance of fan support with No. 7 Kentucky coming in on Saturday.
“You utilize the situation to teach our players,” Kiffin said. “We talked to them again about, ‘Hey, regardless of what you come out to before a game or at halftime when you go back out and you run out of the tunnel and it looks like a high school game played in a college stadium you can’t let that affect you.’
“There’s psychology to that. There’s home-field advantage for a reason. When it goes the other way you kind of have that feeling that, ‘Man, are we still really playing in a game here?’ The players have to fight that. You use that for a learning lesson for our guys. So, if that’s the case, that’s the case.”
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During his time at Ole Miss Kiffin has has utilized different methods get fans to the games and stay for four quarters.
Many times Kiffin has posted videos on his Twitter account, sometimes with players, to speak on the upcoming game and asking for them to show up.
After making a call to action, so to speak, once again last week Kiffin is moving on to focus on game planning for Kentucky and the rest of Ole Miss’ SEC slate.
“I’m worried about what I can control,” Kiffin said. “I’ve tried social media in here for two years. We’ll worry about what we can control and that’s getting our players ready to play.”
Frustrations over a not-full stadium transitioned to preparation for the Top-15 showdown on Saturday.
No. 14 Ole Miss (4-0) hosts the Wildcats (4-0, 1-0 SEC) for the first time since 2012 and is the second time in three years the two teams have met.
In an effort to drum up more excitement for Saturday’s matchup Ole Miss unveiled a new helmet design, partnering with Realtree.
The Rebels left Kroger Field in Lexington with a 42-41 overtime win in 2020 for Kiffin’s first SEC-win in his Ole Miss tenure.
