Lane Kiffin reveals surprising advantage Ole Miss offense might have against Georgia Bulldogs in huge SEC showdown

Kiffin’s offense allows for quick communication in ways that might stress Georgia’s defense

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor
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The Ole Miss Rebels are undefeated, looking to repeat what many thought was impossible a year ago in defeating the Georgia Bulldogs once again. Georgia’s 30+ home game winning streak was just snapped a few short weeks ago as Alabama defeated Kirby Smart and company 24-21. Can Ole Miss do the same?

This year’s Georgia team bleeds, has imperfections, and hasn’t been able to stay healthy on the offensive line. This season’s Ole Miss team has far exceeded expectations, and has been playing great overall, but do they have enough key advantages to actually pull this off? The short answer is an obvious yes. And based on what Lane Kiffin shared with media this week, there’s one advantage they have that most fans might get completely backwards.

Key stats for Ole Miss vs Georgia Week 8 Matchup

  • Ole Miss ranks number one in the nation at creating offensive plays of 30+ yards this year
  • Georgia ranks 112th in defensive sacks generated this season
  • The Rebels ranks top 20 on offense in adjusted EPA (expected points added) per play, yards per play, pass success rate, and third down conversion rate
  • Georgia ranks 86th in third down conversion rate allowed and 109th in tackles for loss

Lane Kiffin highlights key communication advantage for Ole Miss over Georgia

Lane Kiffin is always thinking about the game in a different way than most people. That’s just who he is. That fact was made evident again on Wednesday when he met with SEC media to discuss the game against Georgia. Some people might think that Georgia’s home atmosphere is a huge advantage for the Bulldogs. In Ole Miss’ case, because of how they communicate on offense, that might not be the case according to Kiffin:

“I heard Kirby [Smart] talking about the noise, and [how they] need it to be the loudest the stadium’s ever been. So I’m sure it will be. But both [teams] have to play in the noise. They actually verbally communicate more on defense than we do on offense, [so it] should be a rare game like that. So, you know, I think that the noise is not the biggest factor at all in the game. It’ll be blocking, tackling, catching, throwing and taking care of the football.”

Most of the time fans believe that the noise of a home crowd is automatically an advantage for the home team, but for those familiar with Ole Miss’ offensive process, communication (or the lack thereof), mixed in with the pre and post-snap reads that rely on the individual player (not Trinidad Chambliss’ QB communication), it can be quite the opposite.

A great example of this is with the Ole Miss WR assignments. When I talked to multiple Ole Miss wide receivers earlier this year ahead of the NFL Draft they all shared similar thoughts on how they developed thanks to Lane Kiffin’s scheme. It requires them to do a ton of quick pre and post-snap work, but the system doesn’t rely on complicated communication from Trinidad Chambliss at QB (or Jaxson Dart last year) that might get lost due to a loud stadium atmosphere. Just check out Tre Harris talk about that fact in my post below.

Regardless of the noise impact, Lane Kiffin got it right. This game is going to be all about execution. The good news is that Ole Miss has an experienced team full of players who have proven to execute at a top-ten-team level all season long.

The bad news is that Georgia’s roster is still extremely talented, the coaching staff might be the best in the country, and it’s been almost impossible to beat the Bulldogs in the regular season. Kiffin talked about “benchmarks” and what it would mean to win against Georgia, but obviously wanted it to be clear just how difficult this game is going to be:

“When the team doesn’t get it done, man, they couldn’t get it done. So the benchmark is, ‘They’re not there.’ Like, okay, well, [Georgia] has played 29 home games in the last five years, won 28 of them, and the one they just lost was against Alabama. So it’s like that. I kind of used to say that about Coach Saban. People were like, ‘Well, you know that coach couldn’t beat Coach Saban.’ Yeah, well basically no one does (he said with a chuckle). So obviously, it would be a great win, but you have to have perspective of what’s going on too, when you talk about where your program’s at and benchmarks.”

That quote from Kiffin might come off like he’s just bracing for failure and a loss to Georgia this weekend, but he’s really not. He knows his team can win the day. However, beating any Kirby Smart team is quite the task, and regardless of the outcome on Saturday, Ole Miss fans need to remember that the season isn’t over if they lose, and that either way this Rebels team is looking special.

We’ll be back with more Ole Miss Rebels coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

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