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OXFORD -- Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin met with the media Monday, reviewing the Rebels' 31-20 loss to Auburn this past weekend and previewing Saturday's out-of-conference clash with former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze and Liberty.
Here's a look at what Kiffin said -- and maybe, just maybe -- what he meant.
Opening Statement…
"We've moved on from the game but have to recap with you guys. It was a disappointing outcome to the game. We did not feel that, for whatever reason, we didn't feel like we had great energy, which has not been an issue here. We haven't played well at times over the two seasons, but I don't know why that was. But that's also kind of one-sided, because we did have good energy in the first quarter on defense, and maybe that's a product of having some very valuable offensive players not playing and having guys in that haven't been playing much. We had a lot of opportunities in the game, our defense played well, we did not play well on offense in critical situations, and kind of like the Alabama game we lost the two games where we struggled on our fourth down conversions, so those are a big deal. When you make them, they keep drives alive. When you don't make them, you don't end up with any points. We research everything that we do, and I would say that the book was right in the middle on whether to kick when it's eight, so obviously we didn't make the fourth down so I would kick if we could redo it. That's how it goes. It just kind of felt, we had struggled on offense, that it was going to take a lot to make the field goal, get a stop, get the ball and then go all the way down and we'd still have needed to score a touchdown. It's not like it's truly a one possession game when you go into a field goal in a six-point game. It is what it is.”
What he meant: Lane Kiffin didn’t feel like re-living Auburn today. He’s not alone. Anyway, the energy thing was something that he almost talked himself out of as he answered.
The fourth downs, something he’s asked about later in this press conference, are becoming the hill he’s willing to die on. He clearly isn’t going to change. He believes in being aggressive and he clearly believed he wasn’t going to field-goal his way to a win at Auburn. This was the most my-heart-isn’t-in-this-press-conference press conference of Kiffin’s tenure in Oxford. He always seems a bit deflated on Monday, even after big wins. That really rang true today.
On Matt Corral's ankle and if he'll be practicing this week…
"Yeah he did not do anything today. I was surprised he came back because it looked like it was really bad, obviously when it happened it looked season-ending, broken. That's how he felt it was. Luckily it wasn't so he was able to come back in. He's been very hard on himself over the past day and a half, that first down interception was just totally unlike him this season, it's something maybe a year ago he would've done. Makes a great play to get away from the guy, then he's done it all year where he's got five yards and he runs it out of bounds and it's second and five. Instead he forces the ball across his body, and he's not done anything like that this year, so it just shows you that everyone's human. It doesn't matter who you are, how good you are, your position or whatever. When you try to force things and get out of doing what the plan is, that can happen. I think everyone knows why that happened. He felt like he had to create something, we weren't making a lot of plays around him, and he's at that point where he's playing without basically five starters on offense, and he's just trying too hard. He's very competitive and that can backfire.”
What he meant: Kiffin has mad respect for Corral. That’s obvious. Corral tried to put his team on his back Saturday night and it, as Kiffin said, backfired a bit. Corral is so competitive, so fiery, such a warrior. He’s what you want in a quarterback, but the line between awesome and making mistakes is fine. Corral crossed it late Saturday for the first time this year, but he did it with the right intentions. The offense is so depleted I think Kiffin has some what-could-have-been moments where he thinks what might have been had the Rebels stayed healthy on offense. As it is, he’s got to manage Corral through — hopefully — four games over the next 24 days.
On how they monitored Dontario Drummond and Braylon Sanders this past weekend…
"Well Drummond's was a new injury that happened and he was unable to return. We actually put him back in for a trick play where he didn't have to do anything. I don't think he could have hurt himself worse. With Braylon, he tried to go and just watching him and talking to him where he's like, Well I can go if I can cut off this leg, but I can't cut off this leg,’ and I'm like, ‘Well we're not doing that.’ So that's why he basically didn't play. It's a very difficult position for us on the road against very good players on defense when we have guys out. Some guys stepped up and made some plays.”
What he meant: Maybe I’m wrong here, but I felt like this was a challenge of sorts to Braylon. Drummond’s injury is a hamstring, obviously, and when those things pull, it’s lights-out for a bit. Sanders is good enough to dress. At some point, he’s either got to let it go and see what happens or shut it down. I sensed some frustration in this answer. Kiffin said some guys stepped up. I inferred that he was saying some guys didn’t.
On his thoughts on Liberty…
"With where we are injury-wise, we said hey have you ever experienced anything like this and I said not on one side of the ball. For whatever reason they're just all on offense. And even some that are playing, like our quarterback, even some that are playing aren't close to 100 percent. So yeah, I would like this to be some opponent that you had never heard of before that didn't have a first round draft pick quarterback, that would be nice, but it's basically like having another SEC game. It is what it is. We're excited to come back home, we need the environment to be like it was last time for our players and for our recruits. I don't know whatever we're ranked but we're still ranked, so you've still got a ranked team to come cheer and hopefully watch Matt play again.”
What he meant: There’s a lot here. Who scheduled this? Why? Why did no one cancel this? Why wasn’t this played in Week 4? Shouldn’t this be a bye week? Was New Mexico State not answering the phone?
Also, Kiffin is worried about the environment. Will it be kind of dead? He knows there’s a huge game next weekend at night against a ranked team that will draw a big crowd. It feels like he knows this should either be an open date or a game against McNeese or someone. Again, I sensed a bit of frustration here.
On if he thinks there are any young wide receivers that will have to step up down the stretch…
"Well we've tried. We've tried and we're seeing at practice that there's been a lack of consistency but there's some talent there, but if you don't know what to do and you can't do things consistently then it makes it very hard on your quarterback, especially on a road game when you have to line people up and you have people running all around. We'll keep pushing along, but if we were playing today we'd be in the worst position that we've been in yet now that none of our three receivers are available.”
What he meant: Wow. I’ll say this: There is going to be a lot of processing, if you will, after this season. I bet I know of a room that has some potential departures. Goodness, I heard that and felt it was one hell of an indictment. Why are none of these guys ready? Is it evaluation? Is it development? Are the kids not tough? Not smart? Not hungry? I mean, wow.
On his relationship with Hugh Freeze…
"I know Hugh a little bit from Chris, my younger brother, working here. He's always been good with Chris. I talked to him before like when we hired Corey Batoon. I was in a restaurant in town and he came by and sat down for a little bit. I know him a little bit, I have a great respect for him because I was on the other side when he beat us twice and he's done a great job at wherever he's been. He has a very unique offense that is always giving people problems.”
What he meant: Kiffin isn’t going there. Who can blame him? If he wins Saturday, cool, he beat Liberty. If he loses, it’s the end of the freaking world. Freeze gave Chris Kiffin a great start to his career. Kiffin hired Batoon at FAU. He respects the offensive mind. End of story.
On what his impressions of Hugh Freeze's teams when he faced him at Alabama…
"I was just always amazed by how well they played on gameday. Just kind of the fresh theory, knowing their practice plans versus our's at Alabama, the difference in the ways the programs were run. His players, he had them fresh and ready to go on gameday. For them to lose only two regular season games and for them to only lose three regular season games since I've been here at Ole Miss, he just does a great job at getting them ready to go on gameday.”
What he meant: Again, not going there much. Don’t blame him. Kiffin was on the other sideline when Ole Miss beat Alabama in 2014 and 2015 and almost in 2016. He respects Freeze. There’s just no way he’s going to play into this narrative this week. I can’t imagine either man really wants this game to be played. I could be wrong.
On Jerrion Ealy's lack of consistency this season on offense…
"That was a health thing prior to this week. He's been out, and this was not by design, and when you play tempo and you get into a game, especially when we run RPOs and these guys run cover three all the time which means there's another person to watch, so we work on RPOs and you have to throw them. That's why we were so out of balance with the pass-run, because otherwise you just hand them an extra guy. You may get in there and there are series where the ball doesn't get handed to you, so that was not by design for the carries to be so out of balance to him, especially with such a great kid he is in this generation nowadays where people want to complain and go on Twitter and get attention from everybody because they feel bad for themselves. It was awesome when we met with him, I said hey, just wanted to make sure you knew that wasn't by design. You played great the week before, and he just said, ‘Hey, stuff happens. Let’s just go and win the next game.’ Speaks a lot for him. It's refreshing.”
What he meant: Interesting answer. I was wondering if Ealy were in the doghouse a bit. The answer is an emphatic no. Auburn took away the running game and forced Ole Miss to the air on Saturday, knowing the passing game was limited due to injuries. It just didn’t work out in a way to incorporate Ealy. I meant to ask about Ealy and Parrish working in the slot, but I failed to get there. I’ll try to ask that on Wednesday on the SEC teleconference. There’s a lot of respect for Ealy in this answer. By the way, Ealy said shit happens, not stuff happens. Good try, Ole Miss Media Relations. Not today. I’m on my game.
On his message to fans who may question the amount of fourth down attempts against SEC opponents…
"It's what we do. When it works, they'll say fans like it. Coming into the game we had more fourth down conversions than anyone in the country, and we had one of the top five percentages of anyone in the country. So sometimes they don't work. When you understand analytics and you understand that hey, you can miss the field goal too, so it's not like you can say that you had three points guaranteed. Same if you get a punt blocked or punt returned. It's not as easy as you going, okay well you kick you get the points or you punt you automatically stop them. There's a lot that goes into it.”
What he meant: He’d already covered this. This was a diplomatic answer when he could’ve gotten angry. Coaches hate these things. This is why.
On who Malik Willis reminds him of…
"I don't know that, and in all honesty I really haven't studied him that much. I watch to see personnel and how they really play, so I haven't watched him in depth. I get reports from our guys from the other side on how hard he is to defend, and I know that NFL scouts love him. I think someone walked in and said there's going to be 22 NFL teams here for the game including some general managers, so it speaks volumes about these two quarterbacks.”
What he meant: Kiffin knows Willis is good. The anecdote about 22 NFL teams was meant for recruits, and it’s brilliant. He took a question where there’s not much he can really say and turned it into a headline. Twenty-two NFL scouts, including general managers, in town. Kiffin is essentially saying, “Do you hear that, prospects?” Again, really smart. It also tells you what the NFL thinks of Willis and Corral. Quarterback is a vital position. Both of these guys are being hyped as franchise-type quarterbacks. The NFL doesn’t take anyone’s word. These guys’ careers rest on these decisions.