OXFORD — Upon further review, Lane Kiffin wasn’t nearly as upset with his defense as he thought he was following Sunday’s scrimmage.

After watching the film of the 19-series session inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the Ole Miss coach revised his assessment a bit. As it turns out, Kiffin said, the Rebels’ starting defense played pretty well. The backups, however, did not.

“After looking at and separating those, our (starting) defense played pretty well,” Kiffin said Tuesday following practice. “Obviously that means our 2s and 3s did not because of all the scoring but going back over it, there were some very positive things on defense. …It also means our (backup) offense has to get better also.”

Linebacker MoMo Sanogo said the Rebels’ starting defense felt it played very well against both the backup offense and the starting unit, which it faced in some goal-line and red-zone situations Sunday.

“That’s positive to me,” Sanogo said.

The veteran defender reiterated something that has been said throughout the preseason: Ole Miss has a newfound energy on defense.

“That’s huge,” Sanogo said. “Especially in sudden-change situations where the offense — God forbid — throws a pick, you’ve got to get back out there and stop the other team, regardless of their position on the field, so energy is huge.”

Sanogo said the Rebels’ defense is “on the cusp,” adding that he and his defensive teammates just need to keep “hammering at the details every single day” for now until the start of the season.

“When we do that, it’s going to be a great defense,” Sanogo said. “To me, what feels different is we can do a lot of everything. We’re like Jack in the box or a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get. And we do it all well. …I’m excited about it.”

Sanogo had praise for transfer linebacker Chance Campbell, Navy transfer Jake Springer and safety Otis Reese, who was cleared in time to play the final three games on the 2020 season.

“That makes not just our defense better right now, but all that competition, that’s what makes teams last, year after year,” Sanogo said.

REBELS GET BACK TO WORK TUESDAY: Kiffin said the Rebels enjoyed a bit of a respite from the heat Tuesday, as temperatures climbed into the 80s but not the scorching 90s that met them last week. Monday, Kiffin said, was a “well-needed day off after an unrealistic scrimmage,” referring to putting his team through a padded practice Saturday before Sunday’s lengthy session.

“We have to push that way early in camp so it was good to see them respond,” Kiffin said. “We had a couple of turnovers on defense today, which we did not see Sunday, so that was good.”

Kiffin said a lot of players are “struggling from a physical standpoint because that first week is so hard.” Multiple players are limited, Kiffin said, especially the new receivers. Kiffin singled out freshman defense back Markevious Brown for having some “splash plays” in the first week of work. He also praised young pass-rushers Cedric Johnson and Demon Clowney as players with “high ceilings.”

The focus this week remains on developing depth, Kiffin said.

“Like I said, the first defense played pretty good,” Kiffin said. “The first offense played pretty good. We need depth for special teams and we’ve got to figure it out and make sure we’re winning turnover margin.”

Kiffin does not detail injuries, but he reiterated Tuesday that the Rebels are not dealing with any long-term injuries at this point.

Kiffin said he and his staff will push their squad hard again this week, both mentally and physically. Classes start at Ole Miss on Monday, and starting next week, Kiffin said, things will start to scale back “mentally, for sure, and later next week, physically.”

Kiffin said the Rebels would begin to install some aspects of their first game plan late next week. Ole Miss meets Louisville on Sept. 6 in Atlanta to open the season.

FULL STADIUMS, FULL FANS, CAN’T LOSE: Sanogo said he finds himself eagerly anticipating the normalcy of full stadiums, a packed Grove and other familiar sights and sounds this season. After enduring the oddity of a 2020 campaign that included a closed Grove and limited capacity in stadiums, the promise of a return to normalcy is exciting.

“Especially on the field, you could hear everything,” Sanogo said. “Like you know how John Rhys (Plumlee) said in one interview in baseball, ‘I can hear everything they’re saying in right field’ or whatever — I’m not much of a baseball player. But he could hear what people are saying to him. We could hear what we were saying, what our coach was saying, what their coach was saying. We didn’t have to use our signals. We just talked, so it was a very different game of football.”

Sanogo said every game, home and away, was odd.

“They thought they were slick, playing fan sounds on the intercom,” Sanogo said. “We knew those weren’t real fans. It’s just a different feel when the fans really react to what you do and you make a play and you can either hear a pin drop or a stadium roar. That lights a fire in your heart and it’s huge for momentum and you just don’t have that when you have no fans. That’s what I’m excited about.”