Very pleased how Ole Miss finished the game. Challenging place to play. Hard place to win. Ole Miss played tough, battled through adversity, screwed up easy field goal, Dart missed a throw, gave up long TD run, then settled down and played really well until prevent-mode defense at the end.
-- Prieskorn makes a big difference in run game. Big, physical tight end. Also hitting runs better and doing a good job up front.
-- Judkins ran really hard Saturday. Aggressive, hard, physical, attacking style. Not overplaying him so much. Reps are balanced, and that's helping also.
-- Bye week was good for Z. Franklin. It was first real chance to truly practice. He's finally at full strength. Bye was huge for him and with Watkins out and Tre in the slot, that offered more opportunities for Franklin.
-- Coverage units have been good. Kickoff team has been great. Have hit some big field goals, returned a punt for a touchdown. Also had some really negative things. Blocked punt, fumbled snap. Those extra three points would have made things different. It's high and low overall.
-- Watkins fielding punts with bandage on hand is "not ideal." Anticipate the injury getting better and stitches being removed soon and then getting back to normal.
-- Ole Miss is rotating more on defense this year. More defensive linemen this year. That's contributed to fourth-quarter success. Better team mentality also. Played well together as a team in fourth quarter this year. Couldn't say that a year ago. Had good players but wasn't a very good team. Better chemistry and less selfish this year. Hard to get guys to accept roles out of portal. Lot of work to get that done, but they're doing it.
-- Auburn was rocking. It's disruptive to communication and it showed. It was an issue for Ole Miss. Kiffin said he didn't want to sound arrogant but he didn't think that game would've been close in Oxford. Auburn's crowd impacted game.
-- No. 1 thing is winning but you feel best when you play clean and win. Nice to win when not playing as well as team can. Team has really high ceiling but hasn't put it all together yet.
-- Team-building through the portal is something Kiffin and staff are learning year to year. It's a newer thing and "a constant battle" to get guys to understand value of limited roles. They're using guys have different roles in NFL as a way of motivating guys to accept roles. It's worked on daily. Sometimes it doesn't happen and guys refuse to buy into that. "I think you've seen a couple of examples how that hasn't worked and they're not here."
-- Prieskorn makes a big difference in run game. Big, physical tight end. Also hitting runs better and doing a good job up front.
-- Judkins ran really hard Saturday. Aggressive, hard, physical, attacking style. Not overplaying him so much. Reps are balanced, and that's helping also.
-- Bye week was good for Z. Franklin. It was first real chance to truly practice. He's finally at full strength. Bye was huge for him and with Watkins out and Tre in the slot, that offered more opportunities for Franklin.
-- Coverage units have been good. Kickoff team has been great. Have hit some big field goals, returned a punt for a touchdown. Also had some really negative things. Blocked punt, fumbled snap. Those extra three points would have made things different. It's high and low overall.
-- Watkins fielding punts with bandage on hand is "not ideal." Anticipate the injury getting better and stitches being removed soon and then getting back to normal.
-- Ole Miss is rotating more on defense this year. More defensive linemen this year. That's contributed to fourth-quarter success. Better team mentality also. Played well together as a team in fourth quarter this year. Couldn't say that a year ago. Had good players but wasn't a very good team. Better chemistry and less selfish this year. Hard to get guys to accept roles out of portal. Lot of work to get that done, but they're doing it.
-- Auburn was rocking. It's disruptive to communication and it showed. It was an issue for Ole Miss. Kiffin said he didn't want to sound arrogant but he didn't think that game would've been close in Oxford. Auburn's crowd impacted game.
-- No. 1 thing is winning but you feel best when you play clean and win. Nice to win when not playing as well as team can. Team has really high ceiling but hasn't put it all together yet.
-- Team-building through the portal is something Kiffin and staff are learning year to year. It's a newer thing and "a constant battle" to get guys to understand value of limited roles. They're using guys have different roles in NFL as a way of motivating guys to accept roles. It's worked on daily. Sometimes it doesn't happen and guys refuse to buy into that. "I think you've seen a couple of examples how that hasn't worked and they're not here."
