OXFORD — Lane Kiffin showed up for his Monday Zoom call with reporters wearing a holiday shirt.

With Christmas just 11 days away, the green long-sleeve T-shirt could’ve been interpreted as festive.

However, as with most things with the first-year Ole Miss coach, he was playfully sending a message. The shirt was emblazoned with the words “Merry Flipmas” (with the state of Mississippi replacing the A in Flipmas),an obvious salute to the Rebels’ recent recruiting momentum.

“It’s my favorite holiday of the year, I guess,” Kiffin deadpanned. “Someone gave me a shirt (saying) Merry Christmas and they spelled it wrong. It was free.”

As of midday Monday, Ole Miss was No. 19 in the rivals team rankings and well within shouting distance of No. 18 Nebraska and No. 17 Texas, a meteoric rise Kiffin attributed in part to the Rebels’ strong finish to the season.

“Especially in your first year and these kids can’t official visit, I think there was probably a lot of concern out there this was going to be a disaster class because we don’t know the kids and we can’t get them here and one of the best things about here is to come on an official visit for game day and see the town and see the university and see the stadium. They weren’t able to do that, so I think the performance on the field, with all the national games, has gone a long ways.

“The last few weeks have been awesome (with) great responses from kids — not just the success on the field but they talk about seeing the energy on the sidelines and the players having fun. They mention a lot the difference between the two in-state programs, so it’s been great.”

Kiffin said there are still several things in flux heading into the start of the early signing period Wednesday.

“I’m just proud of our assistant coaches,” Kiffin said. “It hasn’t been easy. I think that not having a game last week really helped us a lot.”

Ole Miss (4-4) was scheduled to face No. 5 Texas A&M this past Saturday, but a COVID-19 breakout on the Rebels’ roster forced that contest to be canceled. Instead, the Rebels’ coaches spent “a ton of time on Zooms, basically doing home visits with the kids on a screen.”

“It’s been really neat,” Kiffin said. “And we’re not done yet. I think you’re going to see some more exciting things the next 48 hours.”

Kiffin can’t speak specifically on prospects but he did allow that he “really liked the direction things are going.”

One prospect Kiffin and the Rebels are trying to flip is Brentwood, Tenn., four-star linebacker Junior Colson, who is committed to Michigan. Another is four-star linebacker Trevin Wallace, a Georgia product who was reportedly down to Auburn and Ole Miss prior to the Tigers’ firing of Gus Malzahn Sunday. Wallace indicated late Sunday he may wait until February to make a college decision. Asked specifically about middle linebacker, Kiffin was careful with his words.

“We’re going to take the best available players,” Kiffin said. “Especially early on, when we’re trying to build a program. I think later on after a few years, you get more specific like that. But yeah, we would love to have an impact middle linebacker for sure.”

Kiffin said he hasn’t committed to how many players he will sign in this cycle, noting that the one-time, no-penalty transfer legislation is going to be a game-changer throughout college football.

“It’s kind of like being in the NFL,” Kiffin said. “If we’ve got really good players who want to come, do we save really for free agency or do we cap out and take really good players? We obviously still don’t know a few guys and won’t know until Wednesday for sure. It’s not an exact number at all. We could get all the guys we want and be capped out or if we don’t, we’re not going to reach and we can go get some free agents.”

REBELS PREPARING FOR LSU: Ole Miss returned to team activities Friday and held their first full practice in some two weeks on Saturday.

“I don’t think it’s ideal but we’ll definitely have fresh legs,” Kiffin said. “That part’s good. It’s taken a little bit of time getting back into it and we don’t have everybody yet.”

Kiffin said some players returned to practice Monday. Others are scheduled to return Tuesday. He said he expects to have the full roster available when Ole Miss travels to LSU Saturday (2:30 p.m., SEC Network).

“It’s a chance to finish with a winning record in a season with all SEC games, which would be pretty exciting for our first year to do, especially knowing that we let a couple of them slip away that we should’ve won,” Kiffin said, noting that LSU’s win over Florida Saturday night in Gainesville “changed everything” for the Tigers.

“I talked to them this morning a lot about the importance of the game,” Kiffin said. “You’re going to remember the rest of your life going into Tiger Stadium and beating LSU. No one is going to remember it was COVID or opt-outs or any of that stuff. It’s pretty neat. None of these guys have done that, so it’s a huge game and really important too.”

KIFFIN AND ORGERON HAVE STRONG TIES: Kiffin and LSU coach Ed Orgeron go way back to the early days of Kiffin’s career at USC. They’ve seen worked together at Tennessee and USC and, most recently, Kiffin was linked to Orgeron’s LSU staff before he took the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic.

“I learned a lot from him in recruiting and was able when I got to Tennessee, I was able to talk him (into) leaving New Orleans,” Kiffin said. “He was in Louisiana and happy with the Saints and we were able to talk him into coming there and then the USC thing, he was there before me. He said when USC offered the job, he said, ‘I’m on a plane to (Los Angeles). I’ll meet you there.’ So he got there a day before I got there, he was so excited to go back to (USC). Obviously, he did an unbelievable job last year and he’s a great recruiter and a great motivator.”

NO CONTACT WITH AUBURN: Kiffin was asked about the Auburn vacancy, as his name has been mentioned on the periphery of the Tigers’ search for Malzahn’s replacement.

“When your players play well, you’re going to be in rumors like that,” Kiffin said. “There’s been no conversations or anything like that.”

Kiffin then took a playful jab at his “mentor,” Alabama’s Nick Saban, who famously declared he was not going to be the Alabama coach weeks before leaving the Miami Dolphins for Tuscaloosa.

“So stop asking me,” Kiffin said, impersonating Saban. “I wasn’t supposed to say that, but I just had to.”