Everything Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin Said About Facing Alabama
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Lane Kiffin's press conference this week was about as lively as one would expect.
Coming off a bye, the former Alabama offensive coordinator shared a few thoughts while previewing the Crimson Tide's upcoming visit to Ole Miss:
"Obviously, no game recap. It was really good to see a lot of guys back healthy for the most part. Obviously, we don't go into details on individuals, but that's the best we've looked in a long time—probably since the beginning of training camp to have so many guys out there moving around. So that was great. Glad to be coming back home. Extremely challenging opponent. Now we have the combination of elite players with elite coaching. This is the best of the best. I texted Finebaum on the way over here when I saw his quotes. Like he normally does, says that the Nick Saban dynasty is over and all of that. Every time he says this, which I tell him, I call it goat fuel—the opposite of rat poison. You're just giving the goat fuel, which for him, that works, and he goes and proves them wrong every time. Really appreciate Paul saying that right after the game. I'm sure that was on his desk Sunday morning. They are always ready to play. They always rebound over the years. You're going to go play the best offensive player in the country and the best defensive player in the country. Very challenging situation. Very glad to be home. We have a nice long home winning streak here, would obviously assume the crowd will be great."
On Saban's teams' ability to rebound from losses…
"Well, there weren't many of them. There were only three, there were only two regular-season in three years, both to Ole Miss. I thought he was phenomenal. You would maybe expect to be the other way like he comes in and everything is the end of the world like some coaches do. He does a really good job of addressing exactly what it was. Remember guys, like Finebaum's stupid statement, dynasty is over—they've lost two games by two plays and both games could've went either way. Alabama makes the field goal at Tennessee and the two-point gets stopped, then they're the No. 1/No. 2 team in the country coming in here. So we're talking about two plays, two teams on the road in two of the hardest environments to play in, over 100,000 people at both games. This is a great team and the best coach to ever do it."
On the team's depth this season…
"I don't know. I still think we have depth issues, especially as the injuries were mounting, we certainly did. They've shown up a lot on defense. It's easily noticed, our defensive issues, once we lost some people over these last few weeks. Our numbers over there have been dramatically different. I do think we're better. I've said all along, this is our best roster of the three years, of collection of talent. But it does not mean it will be the best team. We're still coming together. I know that sounds crazy this late in the season, but with so many pieces, I think it says in (the game notes) 55 percent of something of the team is new, something like that. Hopefully we keep moving up."
On Nick Saban rubbing off on him more as a coach than Pete Carroll, …
"I think that's probably just later in the career. It's fresher coming off of it. Being there the three years, I was with Coach Carroll for six years and I've been with my dad forever. I think that's more just because it was the latest part and you took a lot of how that was done, and that was done in the SEC, in this region, the way coach did it and stuff. I think that's more just a combination of those two things."
On how the team responded during the bye week with the challenge of Alabama coming…
"I'm sure it sounds crazy. We don't sit and talk about Bama week and all that that everyone else in the country seems to do. We've got a lot of things to work on to get better. It really doesn't matter. It matters that you do things really well. That's how you win games. I didn't notice anything different, but I'm glad I didn't because that's not how we train them. We don't want to be a program like that (up and down)—oh we get up for these games but we don't for these. That's what I get mad at our fans for doing, so we're not supposed to do that."
On Alabama linebacker Will Anderson…
"He's such a unique combination of speed and power. He reduces down and plays on guards, which is really unusual, then he speed rushes and then he drops too. That really doesn't seem to happen now as much. That was kind of the old 3-4 outside backer and then reduce. But he still does that. Just really unique combination, and he plays with relentless effort."
On if he addresses his name coming up in job opening rumors…
"I don't, and maybe I'm wrong for that. Just never have. Our players, we treat this like, we tell them 'pro mindset.' We're here to work and get better every day and worry about what we can control. We don't even talk about that."
On how his roster matches up with Alabama's…
"That kind of gets into a lot of game-planning stuff, but these guys have great players and great schemes. That's not the typical rat poison—they do. You look at the draft every year, and you'll see it again this year. It's not often that you have the returning Heisman Trophy winner and the best player in the country at positions where one touches the ball every down and the other one is lined up really close to the quarterback. Those are really the two best positions to have the best players at. You've got to do everything right in order to beat these guys. You have to coach really well, play really well, win situations, manage things, take risks. There's a reason why they're the best over time at what they do. Again, we're talking about, when they've played them, two of the hottest teams in the country on the road in two of the hardest environments to play, and they're one-play games. We're talking about, if they win those two, then they're the No. 1 team in the country coming in here."
On Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs…
"Great player. Really dynamic in what he does. Gives you issues. Not old-school, but really their offense isn't either. So he really fits into what their offense does because that's not the old Alabama offense from years ago either. He's not the big bruising back from a long time ago. Bryce Young certainly isn't the physical stature of the old-school quarterback. I think I just fits in really well with what they do."
On what he did during the bye week…
"I did some recruiting. Went to a couple of different places, as well as our staff. Had a chance to see Knox play a game. Then got back yesterday. That maybe sounds strange because they won the Super Bowl, why they still play. It was a regional game and they got knocked out by this all-star team from Arizona, they didn't play very well."
On how Knox played…
"He was ok. Their team was really out-performed. They've got to check birth certificates. These guys were supposed to be in eighth grade. I kept saying to Knox, there's not a chance these guys are in eighth grade from Arizona. These guys looked like they were in 11th, 12th grade. They've got to check the birth certificates. I said the same thing when I watched the eighth graders play here against Tupelo. That Tupelo team, those guys looked like they were 20 years old too."
