Everything Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said previewing matchup with South Carolina

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin met with the media on Monday to preview the Rebels’ upcoming trip to Columbia to face South Carolina this weekend. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“All right, it’s a great opportunity for us to work this week to get back on track. I already discussed the previous game (Sunday) night with you guys and the disappointment in that. As we continued to review, it just felt we made more mistakes than them and they made more critical plays in situations than we did. So, first time we lost the turnover margin, lost the explosive play battle. So that usually leads to that. Really hard place to play going on the road here to South Carolina with the team really good. Really easily one penalty away from being undefeated and probably ranked really high. These guys are much improved from last year, especially on defense. So this is gonna be a really big challenge about us improving this week.”

On if he feels Caden Prieskorn needs to be a bigger part of Ole Miss’ passing game

“Yeah, I think fair question. We got two really good tight ends that rotate in there and so play count is less than it was at end the last season. And sometimes numbers happen not by design. Sometimes coverages roll a certain way. These guys last week did a really good job of matching the tight ends knowing how we use them and the routes we try to run. And so again, I would love for everybody to touch the ball and have great statistical games, but it doesn’t work that way, especially when you go 1-for-10 on third down and don’t get off the field on defense very well and now you’re 50 some snaps. There’s only so many balls. A lot the time, especially when you lose, it’s well, this guy needs the ball, this guy needs the ball. Okay, well, who are you going to take it away from? I always say to people. So where are you going to get those touches from? That makes a lot harder to answer in my opinion than just how come this guy doesn’t get the ball, which is a very normal question with low touches and especially when you lose.”

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On if he anticipates Ulysses Bentley IV getting more touches at running back

“I don’t know. It’s a fair question. I get asked that every week. These other guys are doing well. I thought they ran well, I thought they protected well. So it’s nothing against Bentley, it’s just is how it is. But I can’t predict how the future is going to go.”

On if South Carolina having many weapons off the edge changes the way he has to look at protection compared to Kentucky

“Yeah, very different players types than last week — polar opposite — and then very different schemes too. um Kentucky ultra sound, keep the ball in front of you, really big bodies. (Mark) Stoops built that defense that way and then I think the addition of the Georgia linebacker was huge for (Kentucky) from a mentality and Leadership standpoint and you saw what they did to us, saw what they did to Georgia. These guys are built differently. They’re more built on speed and twitch. Both present problems.”

On the offense struggling to move the ball down the field in the middle of games and if he attributes this to opposing defenses making good in-game adjustments

“Yeah, I mean, these guys coach, too, and get paid a lot of money to do it. Really good coaches and they got iPads, too. Everybody’s always like, ‘Oh, these iPads and how are they for you on offense?’ I said, well, there’s a variable. They have them too. Kentucky did a good job of that after the first series. We have to do a better job ourselves.”

On the scouting report for South Carolina’s offense

“I think that these guys have good weapons. Both guys present a challenge of ability to escape. Robby (Ashford) is obviously an elite runner and the issues that come with that. So this is gonna be a really big challenge for us.”

On if they talk about having less for margin for error when it comes to the College Football Playoff and trying to make it

“We usually don’t. I don’t talk to guys about playoffs, championships, because that is all outcome based. It has nothing to do with, how are we practicing today? How are we playing on Saturday? I did for the first time tell them today, ‘Just because you get so much of that outside.’ Like questions like that. I did address that with them and say, ‘Just because you get all those questions, understand everything that you want to do is still there.’ We are in a new age of, there are going to be a lot of people with one or two losses. It is obviously not like the NFL as far as the records that get in. I think you see games where you think people are going to win and then they don’t or they go down to the wire in overtime versus people you don’t think they do because this conference is so good.”

On Tre Harris’ workload at wide receiver and how to balance that going forward

“Like I always say, it is like basketball. It is kind of like that with skill guys. You have basketball and you have five guys that can shoot and you bring people off the bench. You don’t say, hey, well, there is Lebron is hot or Michael Jordan or whoever your favorite basketball player is and he is really hot. Hey, don’t pass him the ball anymore. Make sure this guy gets the ball more because there are only so many shots. When we are not making third down and not getting in rhythm and we are in 50-play type of games. I always say to players, because players always want the ball more which is natural. Okay, that sounds great but then who do you want to take it away from? Do you want Tre to only have five touches in that game? It is really easy to look at the other side and I get that. Well, why didn’t this guy have these? There are only so many balls. Who do you want to take them away from?”

On if Gerquan Scott is ready to play now and if he anticipates him playing any center

“He may. There was a lot that went into that. He got injured twice and had two different setbacks that made him miss time. If you haven’t played, it is easier to go in and play guard versus center and all of our calls and everything like that. That is why you saw him rotate in there some at guard as he works back because he is not 100 percent. Again, I can’t totally predict the future but just so you understand why.”

On if he feels like the non-solidified offensive line caused problems in the run game against Kentucky

“I don’t know that. It is what it is. People have injuries around the country, and they come at different times of the year. Ours last year on the offensive line came late and you saw our run issues late in the season especially after we lost two tackles. Again, I am not saying that we don’t have to do better. I am just saying I think that was a really, really good defense that is going to give people a lot of problems. Look what they did against Georgia. Look how Georgia couldn’t run the ball for the most part. Then, look what Georgia just did to Alabama yardage wise and scoring. I think that combination, we have to do better but that also was a really good defense. I said during the week to our staff, if everything goes great on offense, that is great. We want that to happen. This very easily will be more like an NFL game. Two really good defenses and in the NFL, guys get tackled a lot. You don’t just get a lot of free, easy plays. That game became like an NFL game where it was low scoring and every possession matters and who is going to make the last play in a critical situation? There were a lot of them to point to.”

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On how to address the penalties

“We addressed that a lot (Monday). Put a lot of stats up so they could see comparisons, especially when it comes to DPI and defensive holding. Twice as many as anybody in the conference. So, that is obviously an issue with how we are playing in the back end and technique wise. We have addressed that, definitely. They are very critical plays. Here is a statistical thing that people get lost into. ‘Oh, third downs. You guys are this.’ Well, when a third down conversion is made by penalty, it doesn’t count in the stats. You can look at third downs, ‘Man, we played really good.’ But then there are three third downs that we get DPI or defensive holding that are major conversions, especially when they are 3rd and 10 and they don’t show up statistically in your yards, either. So that can be misleading sometimes. Those are critical plays. They are almost like turnovers when the team was going to punt, otherwise.”

On how the team is handling the loss to Kentucky over the weekend

“I think they were really disappointed. I think they were really upset. Really hurt. I told them (Monday), that is a good thing. For the guys that were in the room that didn’t and just went on with their day and it didn’t really hurt, that will show you. The more you are invested, the more that you put into something. You are going to feel different afterwards than somebody that isn’t invested and doesn’t put all their heart into it. I think it was a good thing that they struggled so much the last two days.”

On how to adjust to the way an officiating crew calls a game

“Well, there’s human element into that. Kind of like refs in basketball, sometimes they let them play more and sometimes they don’t. Ours is a little harder because ours is so significant on a third or fourth down and whether you call that hand on the jersey or not. But it is what it is. You have different variables on different officiating crews and you just hope that they go both ways within the game.”

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