Kiffin, Rebels in 'holding pattern' as COVID-19 disrupts schedules

Lane Kiffin had big plans for his first spring at Ole Miss.

In addition to installing new offensive and defensive systems, Kiffin planned to turn the last couple of weeks of March and the first three weeks of April into a recruiting bonanza, complete with official visits that capitalized on Oxford’s pleasant spring weather and the fan base’s excitement over the Rebels’ nationally-ranked baseball team.

Of course, those plans — and the plans of just about everybody everywhere — were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ole Miss is finishing the semester online and Kiffin’s new players are scattered all over the country.

Kiffin referred to the situation as “a holding pattern,” noting that he and his coaching staff are very limited in regards to what they can do with the players at this point.

“We can send them workouts but they’re not required to do them nor report back,” Kiffin said. “Even if they were in Oxford, we’re not allowed to work them out.”

Kiffin said Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey has been in contact with the league’s athletics directors and not the coaches.

“This is just an assumption but no one really knows when this is going to end,” Kiffin said.

When it does, whenever that is, Kiffin is hopeful there’s a way to reclaim these lost practices. He said Tuesday that while it might be naive to hope for it, he is hopeful for some form of spring football, whether that is getting rid of spring recruiting in favor of practices or whether it’s implementing an NFL-style non-contact set of practices to prepare for the season.

“My thought on that is if we didn’t have it all, that really hurts first-year coaching staffs,” Kiffin said. “I was thinking if I was still at FAU, you’d have players who knew the system and who had played games together. It’d be an even playing field. For new coaches, that would definitely hurt the first-year programs.

“If we were at FAU, it wouldn’t be the end of the world not having spring practice. You’re already established. You know your players. You lose a lot.”

Kiffin said a few weeks ago he had also wanted to use the spring to evaluate his current players. Without that benefit, it sets the process back. Kiffin said one of the big things in coaching is understanding your players and knowing how to coach them.

“Until you get to work with them, there’s no way to get that,” Kiffin said. “You lose a lot of things. …You can watch old film, but I don’t know how much that helps. People are coached differently. You see it all the time. Guys get fresh starts and play a lot better or sometimes not.”

More than current players are impacted by the loss of spring practices. Kiffin said he and his staff are making calls to recruits, re-organizing recruiting boards from an evaluation standpoint and looking at future opponents from a scouting standpoint. Kiffin said he had wanted to wait to dip into the transfer market until he had a feel for his current players. Not having spring practice would hurt that plan.

Kiffin said there had been plans to have a lot of official visits on the Grove Bowl weekend, which had been scheduled for April 18, the same weekend the Rebels’ baseball team was set to entertain perennial national title contender Vanderbilt.

“That was our plan to move things up, but we’ll see,” Kiffin said.

Kiffin said he’s not been told anything definitive regarding summer or fall schedules.

“I think everyone is being careful,” Kiffin said. “I’m no expert on this but it seems no one really knows. Who knows if it’s coming to an end in weeks or months. The president (Donald Trump) said weeks today, but who knows?”

Kiffin said he didn’t know how an altered schedule would impact summer recruiting. Typically, in a year not impacted by a worldwide pandemic, June is used for camps and evaluation and July can be filled with commitments that allow staffs to reorganize their recruiting boards.

“It’s hard to figure out until we get more information on it,” Kiffin said. “Our plan was to move things up, but we’ll see.”

Kiffin said competitions are open throughout the roster, adding they don’t really have a depth chart right now. He said if there’s no spring, they’ll have to speed things up and “play it by ear.” He said offenses and defenses aren’t as complicated as they used to be, so there wouldn’t be any need to dramatically simplify things.

More than anything, Kiffin said, he is just hoping to get some sense of a timetable for when his program can gain some sense of normalcy. For a football coach, that means contact with players and a build to a season opener in September.

“I feel like we’re a long ways away from getting to the point where we’re even around the kids,” Kiffin said. “Hopefully, I’m wrong."