Lane Kiffin's Breakdown: What Went Right for Ole Miss Football in Win Over Arkansas

Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels captured a 41-35 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night at Vaught Hemingway Stadium behind a strong performance from backup quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.

The Ferris State transfer, and Division II All-American, lifted No. 17 Ole Miss to an SEC win in his first career start after tallying 415 total yards of offense with three scores.

Kiffin and Co. made the move to ride with Chambliss while Austin Simmons nurses an ankle injury with the decision paying dividends on Saturday night at Vaught Hemingway Stadium.

Now, Ole Miss is 3-0 with a pair of Southeastern Conference wins with the program starting off the 2025 season strong.

Kiffin took the podium following the Rebels' Week 3 win where he broke down the performance from Chambliss, thoughts on Simmons and what went right in the second half for the defense.

Ole Miss Rebels Football: Trinidad Chambliss. — Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

Lane Kiffin's Thoughts: Week 3 Edition

Trinidad Chambliss Handles Business

“Trinidad’s day didn’t surprise me. Anytime we have gone in the stadium in scrimmages, or his play in the last two games, he’s done a fabulous job. I just think he has the ‘it’ and it’s what brought him here. I think as you look around the country, look at a year ago, there’s an SEC team, they lose their quarterback and they’re a completely different team.

"They get him back and they totally change. I said in the off-season, just like any room, d-line, DBs, hey, ‘let’s improve the room overall.’ Spent a lot of time and energy recruiting Trinidad for situations like this. Kyle said he played in more fans today than in his entire career combined. Said a lot about him and he took care of the ball.

"A lot of times, quarterbacks, don’t care their age, when they finally start, No. 1 issue is taking care of the ball and he did a great job at that. And we needed all that today, obviously, with the way that we played defensively.”

Ole Miss Rebels Football: Week 3. — Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

Strong Second Half Performance on Defense

"Pete does a great job at halftime. I actually said it in the halftime interview on TV. Over time here, we’ve done a great job, just like last week, of halftime adjustments on things and defensively. And so I really had a lot of confidence that he’d figure something out because he wasn’t working the first half.

"We obviously couldn’t figure out the quarterback and him pulling and stopping him. So again, Coach Petrino does a great job, too. They get paid a lot of money to coach over there as well. He’s always done a good job of scheming people. Really proud of how we made adjustments and limited them in the second half really to the one touchdown.”

Importance of a Shootout Win Early in the Year

"It's really big for them to go through this adversity if you win. It’s not good when you lose. I’m sure Sam (Pittman) would tell you that right now. So, like you said, they made the plays in that, and there’s still things to make.

"We have the series before that, a chance to maybe put them away. We throw it slightly behind Cayden Lee, and he drops the ball for what, the first time in a year. So, there’s still a lot of things to work on, and obviously we got to tackle quarterbacks like that a lot better on defense.”

Thoughts on Austin Simmons

"Austin’s a competitor. Austin’s a great player, 19 years old, and it’s unbelievable what he’s already done in his career academically, baseball and football.

"So he’s very competitive and wanted to go in there and wanted to play and fought through an injury all week to get ready to play. And luckily he did because it was a huge touchdown that he made for us.”

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