OXFORD — When No. 5 Florida and Ole Miss kick off the Southeastern Conference season Saturday in Oxford, game-time will arrive with both sides quite curious as to how prepared they are.

For Ole Miss, it’s the inaugural game of the Lane Kiffin era, the first game with new offensive and defensive systems and the first time Kiffin has coached with 10 members of his staff.

Kiffin didn’t have a spring to install or an offseason to refine.

“This is not ideal by any means,” Kiffin said.

It’s not an excuse, he said, but there’s no doubt his team isn’t as much of a finished product as he would have liked.

“It is what it is,” Kiffin said, reciting one of his former bosses’ favorite sayings.

Nick Saban, who Kiffin worked for at Alabama for three years before leaving to be the head coach at Florida Atlantic, was a stickler for fundamentals. Kiffin and his staff have emphasized the same over the past six weeks, but he admitted Wednesday he’s not sure what he’ll see when 11 a.m. Saturday rolls around.

“I hope we’re good at those things,” Kiffin said. “I haven’t watched much football but when I get people reporting to me with what’s going on, there’s a lot of sloppy play, which you would expect. A lot of turnovers and a lot of missed tackles and not playing the ball well, so I’m sure that’s a product of no spring, so we’re just doing the best we can. I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen Saturday, but we’ll be there. I know that much.”

It’s Year 3 in Gainesville for former Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, but the Gators have had to deal with a global pandemic also, so Mullen acknowledged there are some unknowns for his veteran club as well as they head to Oxford.

“I think the big one is the technique and fundaments,” Mullen said. “We’ve missed so much football. You end up with limited practices in training camp. They changed how we did training camp, basically limiting the time that you spend in training camp teaching things with the rules that were made. And then you eliminate spring ball. I think one of the things that you see if that there’s been a massive amount of football teaching taken away from these guys and it shows with the performances on the field.

“Hopefully we respond pretty well but we’ve talked a lot about it. It’s about a team that is going to be able to play with great fundamentals, has great technique, adjusts to games. We haven’t really done much football since Jan. 1. We haven’t played a game since Jan. 1. When you lose spring ball, you lose tackling opportunities. We’re not going to hit a lot during camp. …That is the biggest thing, more than, ‘Hey, we’re going to try to scheme up great plays.’ It’s more are we going to play hard and adjust to game mode and play with great fundamentals. If we do that, we’ll have an opportunity to be successful.”

Kiffin said his offensive coordinator, Jeff Lebby, will be calling the plays Saturday. Kiffin, considered one of the brightest offensive minds in college football, will be a resource, but he said he won’t step on Lebby’s toes.

“We’re running what you would’ve seen at UCF,” Kiffin said. “I’m there for him if he has questions or things but I decided when I took the job to hire a system and let them do it. I think when you mess with them too much, that can not be good. As the head coach, I try to leave my coaches alone for the most part so I can manage the game.”

Ole Miss has moved quarterbacks Grant Tisdale and Kade Renfroe to wide receiver, at least for now, Kiffin confirmed Wednesday.

“We’re just preparing for every possible scenario that could happen,” Kiffin said. “We’re very fortunate right now. We tested again this morning so we’ll have those (results) back (Thursday). Our last two tests have been perfect. …We’re just preparing for every situation by moving some backups around.”

Sophomore KD Hill will make his first college start Saturday. The Eufala, Ala., native talked about that and more earlier this week.

Ole Miss will wear powder blue jerseys for the first time in school history Saturday. From the sounds of things, it’s likely to be more than a one-off. Kiffin said as much earlier this week on Pardon My Take.

On Wednesday, Kiffin said the reception to the new jerseys has been very positive.

“I know the players were extremely grateful and excited. I think with recruits, we’ll know more, obviously from (their) watching the game. I know you can’t please everybody and maybe there are some fans that don’t like them from a tradition standpoint and things but my message would be, with a lot of things, like I say all the time, people are a lot more happy when you get good players and win games, so sometimes you have to make decisions for what your players want and what recruits want.”

Ole Miss mailed Lane Kiffin bobbleheads to season ticket holders this week. The school also had a large bobblehead produced. It will be at the Oxford Exxon, along with 100 bobbleheads, on Friday.

“It was very creepy when they showed it to me like a month ago,” Kiffin said. “It was kind of eerie being around it. I think they did a good job. I think they took some pounds off me, so I was grateful for that.”

Kiffin acknowledged that the mandated smaller crowd Saturday will feel different for veteran players. Ole Miss, per state regulations, can only fill one-fourth of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Kiffin joked that a small crowd won’t feel odd to him at all.

“I kind of joked the other day, but really, I just spent three years in Conference USA so I’ve been kind of used to socially distancing crowds at a lot of places,” Kiffin said. “So I don’t think it’ll be that strange for me.”