Lane Kiffin is already making excuses for Ole Miss in 2022
Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin has deemed himself the "portal king" on more than one occasion. The former Tennessee Vols head coach is leaning heavily on transfers to keep the momentum going at Ole Miss, a program that just had its best season ever in 2021 under Kiffin. Ole Miss brought in 16 […]
Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin has deemed himself the "portal king" on more than one occasion.
The former Tennessee Vols head coach is leaning heavily on transfers to keep the momentum going at Ole Miss, a program that just had its best season ever in 2021 under Kiffin.
Ole Miss brought in 16 transfer players in their 2022 signing class. That's more than most programs. Those 16 players should help the Rebels pick up where they left off in 2021 when the program won 10 regular-season games for the first time ever.
Kiffin, however, isn't so certain that Ole Miss will find the same success in 2022. In fact, he's already making excuses for the Rebels, suggesting that the program could deal with "chemistry issues" that other SEC programs won't have to face.
“If everybody had a bunch of portal guys, everybody would have this (chemistry) issue,” said Kiffin this past week to The Athletic. “But we’re going to go play a lot of these SEC teams where their culture is set, and hardly any of their new players are starters.”
That sounds like an excuse that former Vols head coach Butch Jones would've made during his time in Knoxville. Every team in college football will deal with adversity of some kind in 2022. Every program is dealing with NIL issues and transfer portal issues (recruiting essentially never stops now…even when kids arrive on campus). Ole Miss isn't unique just because they added a few more transfer players than other programs.
If Kiffin is already making excuses, it probably doesn't bode well for the Rebels' chances of winning 10 games again in 2022.
Featured image via Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
