Lane Kiffin is making sure to avoid one big mistake ahead of Ole Miss Rebels' game against the Georgia Bulldogs
Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin is making sure to avoid a critical mistake ahead of Saturday's massive game in Oxford against the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart thrives on disrespect — perceived or real — often using it to motivate his players. It's a big part of how Smart has managed […]
Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin is making sure to avoid a critical mistake ahead of Saturday's massive game in Oxford against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart thrives on disrespect — perceived or real — often using it to motivate his players. It's a big part of how Smart has managed to keep his team "locked in" for the last four years (minus a couple of hiccups against Alabama).
"Our whole program was being doubted," said Smart last month after Georgia's win against Texas. "I mean, did you watch the show (ESPN's College GameDay) this morning?"
"Nobody gave us a chance. Your whole network (ESPN) doubted us," added Smart after the Texas game. "Nobody believed in us."
Ole Miss has to beat Georgia on Saturday to keep the Rebels' College Football Playoff hopes alive. Which is why it's a wise move by Kiffin to make sure that Smart has absolutely no bulletin board material to use this week.
In fact, Kiffin is doing the opposite of providing Smart with bulletin board material, choosing instead to heap a large amount of praise on the Georgia program.
"In my opinion, anybody that’s going to win it is going to have to go through Georgia at some point," said Kiffin on Monday. "They’re the premier program in college football. Outside of Alabama, they've won 51 straight games. Let me repeat that — 51 straight games. Not non-conference, that’s 51, including playoffs, straight games, which has got to be some record in the history of football to win 51 straight against everybody but one program. And they’re loaded as always and playing really well. Went into Texas who was the number one team and beat them. So this is a big challenge for us."
"These guys (Georgia), again, get the best high school players every year," continued Kiffin. "They’ve got more draft picks than anybody else because they do a great job recruiting and a great job developing the players once they’re there. So when you look at this, they’re all over the field, as always, when you look at the tape Really, you know, again, that one program, you know, with a miracle half of Michael Vick showed up. And I just watched the film this morning and it looked like on a field of everybody that was big and fast, he (Alabama QB Jalen Milroe) was faster than everybody.
"And that’s the only game they lost, with all that happening, they still came all the way back and took the lead at Alabama. So this is a great football team with great coaches and great personnel. That’s why I said they won 51 straight games. Last time they lost, besides Alabama, was COVID (in 2020) to the Florida Gators. So, it says a lot about what a great job he’s done."
There's not really anything that Kiffin said that Smart will be able to use as bulletin board material to give his team an added edge this week. Now, I'm sure Smart will still find a way to motivate his players — he's been doing it since he took the job in Athens nearly a decade ago — but the source of motivation won't be from anything that Kiffin said.
Kiffin, by the way, is right. Georgia, despite failing to make the playoff last season, is still the premier program in college football. And regardless of where they're ranked in early November (something that doesn't matter at all and has zero impact on how games are played), the national championship still goes through Georgia.
After Saturday, Ole Miss will either be essentially eliminated from the playoff or they'll push the Bulldogs to the brink of elimination. It's a game that will have a huge impact on how the postseason plays out and Kiffin is making sure that he doesn't make any missteps that give the Bulldogs an added advantage.
