‘We didn’t have that, you know a year ago’ – Lane Kiffin praises Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy’s debut
At times in 2024, the onus in the run game was on Jaxson Dart. The rotating door at running back wasn’t enough and the first-round pick had to do it all himself at times. Fast forward to Saturday and it looks like Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels have its answer in the backfield.Missouri […]
At times in 2024, the onus in the run game was on Jaxson Dart. The rotating door at running back wasn’t enough and the first-round pick had to do it all himself at times. Fast forward to Saturday and it looks like Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels have its answer in the backfield.
Missouri transfer Kewan Lacy exploded onto the scene with a three touchdown performance. He drew rave reviews from his head coach in the post game press conference.
“It was awesome. I mean, I just tell you how it is, we didn’t have that, you know a year ago and so it’s really good to have it back,” Kiffin said. “I was looking forward to that and kind of thinking he was gonna play like that because that’s how he practices and got a unique skill set of speed and power.
“It’s great to see that a ball can break and go score and not get caught. Makes it a lot easier not to call more plays afterwards. That was great to see.”
Lane Kiffin was very complimentary of his team Saturday in a dominant win.
“To play 63-7, so what is that, 46-0 run after they scored. When you play 46-0 football, you’re doing a lot of things really well on offense and defense, special teams,” Kiffin said. “Really pleased by the offensive balance. 695 yards and 295 on the ground, in a game that only two returning starters on offense and two on defense.”
The run game was exceptional against a Sun Belt team in Georgia State who was very concerned with the air attack from new starter Austin Simmons. Speaking of, despite the two interceptions, Kiffin was very happy with the performance of his new quarterback.
“I thought he did some really good things. Scrambled the way that we would want, you know, slid and took care of himself, but also showed that he can move around and make some plays with his feet.”
Lane Kiffin was pleased with his offensive line but wants more consistency.
“You would think with the output it would’ve been cleaner. We got beat a couple times at guard, both sides, and so I thought it was pretty inconsistent, but some good things,” Kiffin said. “Some good things on Kewan’s longer run and some good finish with some things. I’d say actually better in the run game than the pass game at times.”
Hard to complain about close to 700 yards of offense and 63 points, but the unit needs to operate a lot cleaner next week against an SEC opponent in Kentucky.
A lof of early success on offense was thanks to a dynamic passing game to begin the contest. Simmons began the game with seven-straight passes. Kiffin acknowledged some of it was by design, some of it was Simmons taking what the defense gave him.
“Some of our stuff is run pass option. A lot of that scripted and just wanted him to start really fast, and got really good skill guys out there and thought that that was a place of attacking. We approached this game like we would an SEC game,” Kiffin said, “Like hey, this is where we’d attack people. This is how we’d play against the opponent that we were playing and that’s really what it kind of dictated to and where our strengths versus, in my opinion, where their weaknesses were.”
