Why Lane Kiffin Views Ole Miss Football's Sloppy Win Over Wake Forest as a Good Thing

Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin seemed optimistic in his postgame press conference on Saturday night.

Sep 14, 2024; Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin during the first half against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The No. 5 Ole Miss Rebels overcame mental mistakes and sloppy play on Saturday night to claim a 40-6 road win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Although the performance wasn't pristine for the Rebels, they still did enough to dominate the opponent and come away with a win over a Power Four opponent on the road. While no head coach is ever pleased with mental lapses, Lane Kiffin viewed his team's overall performance as a positive on Saturday night, and he revealed why after the game.

"I thought we played really good run defense against a good offense. Too many penalties, holdings on defense," Kiffin said. "It's good. This could have been another 60-point win, and probably wouldn't have their attention. It's good for us to have stuff to clean up. They've done a great job here of winning a lot of games at home against a lot of ranked teams, so this was a big challenge for us."

Kiffin also believes that Ole Miss playing so sloppy (11 penalties for over 100 yards) yet still claiming a huge win shows just how good his team can be. It's important to clean up these issues and not repeat them down the road, but winning by multiple scores after a performance like that should bode well for the Rebels once they play cleaner football.

"Go on the road, have some adversity and still win by 34 points. It says a lot about them, that they're really talented," Kiffin said. "We can play sloppy, get penalties, turnovers and still win like that, it's a really talented roster. Now we've got to not have the critical penalties on defense and two turnovers."

The Rebels will have plenty to work on this week in practice, but it's always easier to correct mistakes after a win as opposed to a loss. Ole Miss will take the field at home next week when it plays host to Georgia Southern.