OXFORD -- Two days after Florida rolled up 642 yards of total offense in a 51-35 win over Ole Miss, the Rebels' defense wasn't searching for moral victories.

There weren't any to be found.

Instead, Ole Miss was owning it and hoping to improve as the page flipped from the Gators to Kentucky.

"You don't break the SEC record for Florida, who's had great offenses and then they have the most in the history of the school," Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said. "There are not a lot of positives to find there. We did almost stop them on a third down, but then we roughed the passer, so I was kind of excited there for a second."

Kiffin was sarcastic, but he was right about third-down woes. Florida was 6-for-10 on third downs, controlling the ball more than 33 minutes and keeping an explosive Ole Miss offense (613 yards) off the field.

"We shouldn't have given up that many points and that many accolades to the tight end and the quarterback," Ole Miss cornerback Keidron Smith said, referring to the combination of Kyle Pitts and Kyle Trask. "We just have to learn from our mistakes this week.

"We had a gameplan. We just have to go out and execute it. It's up to us as leaders to keep everybody's heads held high and keep momentum and try to get everybody hyped up," Smith said. "We've got to stop them on third down. We had them on drives but we let them get another first down on third downs so they kept continuing to drive. Eventually, they broke explosive plays."

Smith said the Rebels have to do a better job this weekend "locking in, paying attention to detail. The offense is going to change up their formations and everything but sometimes, it would be the same play. It's just knowing the route formations and all of that stuff."

However, he acknowledged a simple fact. Talent matters in the Southeastern Conference, and Ole Miss was overmatched in spots against the Gators.

"To be honest, I felt like it came more down to athletic ability than it did knowing what to do," Smith said.

Kentucky (0-1) will present challenges of its own Saturday at 3 p.m. CDT. So Smith and the Rebels have to learn from the Florida debacle and turn the page quickly.

Kentucky is "disciplined up front with the O-line group and they try to run the ball downhill. We have to be ready for that. They're run-game heavy and then we have to win on the outside as DBs."

Ole Miss tight end Kenny Yeboah had five catches for 91 yards against Florida, all of that coming in the second half. The grad transfer from Temple knew his time was coming Saturday, so he remained patient.

"It just all came at me," Yeboah said. "Honestly, I wasn't thinking about it the whole game. I knew it would come. I didn't know when but I knew when it did, I'd make the most out of it. I just kept playing hard the whole game."

"He had a really good second half," Kiffin said. "Actually, missed the block on a swing there that would have been a big play, No. 51. But then came back three straight plays in a row if I remember right. That was good to see. He had missed some time also with injury. We're going to have to have other people, now that we put what we did on film, we're going to have to have a lot of different coverages to Elijah (Moore)."

Yeboah got banged up a little at the end of Saturday's game but he said he is fine now and healthy for Kentucky. It'll be his first SEC road game, but Yeboah already knows what to expect.

"The people are bigger," Yeboah said. "You have four- and five-star players and they're great players and they're smart. When I went out there, I wasn't really nervous. I've been playing and this is my fourth or fifth year starting pretty much at the tight end position. It just felt really normal to me. I wasn't thinking about playing the No. 5-ranked team in the country. I was just going out there and playing ball."

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said Monday SEC presidents plan on voting soon regarding the possibility of granting intra-conference transfers the ability to play right away. Stoops said the rule would go into effect immediately.

For Ole Miss, that would mean Georgia transfer Otis Reese would be able to help the Rebels right away. Kiffin is for that, but he thinks it's bigger than just Reese and Ole Miss.

"I don't think there should be a rule," Kiffin said. "That's not just for Otis but in general. You have the rule in place that you have to sit, but if you win an NCAA waiver for things, I don't know why you wouldn't. Then just having to go over an SEC hurdle, that doesn't make sense to me. I obviously know why it was. People didn't want people transferring in conference, but that's not what it's supposed to be. It supposed to be about the student-athlete. There are circumstances where a kid wins an NCAA waiver. The SEC in my opinion shouldn't be blocking that. I just think it's because it was set in stone years ago to block kids. That's why they are reviewing it, since there's obviously people that feel the same."

"We have more buses than normal. I don't know what that's going to do because we're going to get on a plane and all sit by each other, so what good does that do? I have no idea. It makes it look like we're doing something, I guess. I don't understand it. ...It is what it is. I guess we'll burn some extra gas."

-- Lane Kiffin on Ole Miss' COVID-19 precautions as the Rebels travel to Kentucky this weekend.