No. 20 Ole Miss proves its worth with a nice road response against Kentucky
It was a shaky start for first-year starter Austin Simmons, but the Ole Miss defense and run game helped the Rebels get a big-time SEC road win and move to 2-0. Head coach Lane Kiffin was visibly exhausted but very complimentary of his young team.“Really proud of our guys, coming on the road in the […]
It was a shaky start for first-year starter Austin Simmons, but the Ole Miss defense and run game helped the Rebels get a big-time SEC road win and move to 2-0.
Head coach Lane Kiffin was visibly exhausted but very complimentary of his young team.
“Really proud of our guys, coming on the road in the SEC and winning is a hard thing to do,” Kiffin said. “You play four of these, for now, you play four every year and they’re hard. So it’s like you just have a relief to cross them off and get wins on the road.
“Proud of our guys. We started poor, we’re down 10-0. Guys made a heck of a play to convert the 4th down otherwise it’s 10-0 and they’re gonna have the ball in our territory. You guys know we play aggressive, but it takes players to make the plays,” Kiffin said. “That really, to me, that was a big turn. They’re gonna get the ball back, up 10-0. From there we go on a 30-10 run to the last field goal there at the end. So proud of our guys, how they played wasn’t perfect.”
Despite the shaky performance, Austin Simmons made a big play when it mattered most.
On a fourth and one, Ole Miss opted to throw it and converted with a beautiful ball down the sideline to Harrison Wallace III.
“Yeah, just we have a lot of confidence in him and just knew he’d make the plays. They’re hard man, they’re sticky on defense. They’ve been that way for a long time, sometimes throw in all those zones. Really the one time you’re gonna get them in man like that is short yardage,” Kiffin said. “There’s a lot of risk obviously in that throwing the ball down the field like that. Just something we had practiced and had ready for that spot and made a big play and Tre made a great play.”
Kiffin was a big fan of the team’s resolve after going down 10-0 early on the road.
“I think it says a lot. I think it says they got a chance to be really good because you can see in phases they’ll go right down the field and score with dynamic playmakers and they’ll stop people and shut them down 3 and out. I think they have a chance,” Kiffin said. “Today was a good SEC start. Again, winning the SEC is hard, but winning on the road in SEC is hard. So you can start 1-0 in the SEC when they put you in Week 2 at a game, it was great, now we have a chance to go back home.”
Lane Kiffin has been pleased with the exceptional start by Kewan Lacy.
“I mean, he’s really good, and we had Quinshon for those two years. He’s great running back and winning here without it. You can see it’s hard in the SEC when these games, kind of you turn it over, the passing game’s not working as great, or not protecting, you wanna run the ball, and that was the goal today.
“This is kind of what I probably would have predicted. You have 48 rushes and 24 passes. Probably would have predicted that to happen in a good way. So that was really good to see, it was a huge part of that.”
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Trinidad Chambliss was a big transfer portal pick up for Ole Miss. And on Saturday, it proved to be even bigger.
Austin Simmons went down with an ankle injury late in this one. In stepped the Division II transfer quarterback. In limited action to milk this one and seal the victory, Chambliss ran the ball three times for 13 yards to finally put Kentucky away. Kiffin alluded to the importance of the portal addition and how big it was Saturday.
“It’s really great. It’s a really great pickup to have somebody like that. You’ve seen that model before we had here like Plumlee and Corral and on they do it in the NFL sometimes. So it’s great to have him here,” Kiffin said. “Saw it last week actually, I don’t think people really paid as much attention, but he went in in certain situations last week because he has a unique skill set. He was not 100 percent today. He was playing with the injured calf. Didn’t even know, it was really bothering him more. Just told a manager that adrenaline is a good drug, so you’ll be alright and looks like he was.”
