Ole Miss improved to 6-0 after a 24-21 victory over Washington State, but Lane Kiffin didn’t sound like a coach celebrating a perfect record. The Rebels’ head coach opened his postgame remarks with a blunt reminder that his team “survived” more than it succeeded.
“The number one goal of the program is to get to 1-0 every week, so we did do that and survived,” Kiffin said. “That’s good because if this game went the wrong way at the end, we would really be feeling bad. But outside of that, I’m really not pleased with how we performed today.”
Missed chances early set the tone for a sluggish morning. “We kind of messed around early, missing a field goal, and not converting on 4th and goal,” Kiffin said. “To come through all of that and go up two scores with seven minutes left and put ourselves in a bad situation by letting them score a touchdown and not finishing off the drive, I’m just really disappointed in that part.”
Kiffin didn’t deflect blame. “It’s on me,” he said. “Maybe I need to find a better way for these 11:00 a.m. kicks. We had two losses last year and obviously didn’t play well today.”
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While praising Washington State’s effort and willingness to take defensive risks, Kiffin made it clear Ole Miss lacked urgency. “They played great, took a lot of risks on defense, and came through on a lot of them with a lot of ‘blitz zero,’” he said. “We finally made a play on it late with Cayden Lee, but just not to our standard. I hope nobody is pleased with that.”
Kiffin also lamented the lack of energy from both the team and the stands. “I thought our red zone offense showed up about as much as the student section did today,” he said. “That’s on us. I told them all week the crowd probably wouldn’t be what it’s been, and you’re gonna have to create your own energy.”
For Kiffin, the message was unmistakable, stop believing the hype. “We are ranked fourth, but we played like the 84th-ranked team in the country,” he said. “Quit reading the rat poison and make plays.”