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TaxAct Texas Bowl: Ole
Miss vs Texas Tech
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Houston, Texas, USA
NRG Stadium
Ole Miss Rebels
Coach Lane Kiffin
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: All right, Coach. Start us off.
LANE KIFFIN: Okay. So you guys that cover me know I
don't speak coach speak. When I say this I mean this. I
thought that their staff and players did a great job. I
thought they had them ready to play.
I thought -- we knew they played hard, you know, kind of
overachieving model of team that talk from people in the
conference how hard they play. It happens a lot at home.
We were hoping maybe they didn't do it as well today, but
those guys had some good plans.
I think you're going to -- as a coach you break down the
game and say, okay, yards, points, all that stuff. There's a
lot of similarities in the running and throwing of the ball by
the teams, but, you know, you're going to look really glaring
at fourth downs and turnovers.
So, you know, they did a great -- both were very
aggressive. You know, we were 2 of 7 on the fourth
downs. They were 5 of 6. I thought they had really good
plays and speed options and checking on different things.
I put that on coach. I thought their fourth down schemes
were better than ours, and ours were short of yardage
sometimes and weren't able it move them.
So I do, I give them a lot of credit for how well they
coached and how hard they played. After the fourth down
and turnovers and, you know, do some analytic chart, and
you're going to be 99.9%. If you don't make five fourth
downs and you turn over, what, five times, that's 10.
One of those fourth downs is a turnover, so it's really nine
times, right? If I just did the math right, that's nine times
you give them the ball back without kicks going or scores
going on. So that's not going to bode well, and it didn't
tonight.
I thought we had a little rally there in the second half.
Jaxson had a really poor first half, and he would tell you.
Some critical plays. Obviously, the turnovers. Fourth
down with the guy in the flat, and he thought it was a
different play and took a shot deep, which killed some
momentum there on a fourth and one.
It's a shame because this would have been a great game
to win down here versus a very good team and go out for
these guys that were the last game.
So, again, credit to them. I thought they did a great job
stopping the run for a team that's run the ball extremely
well most of the year. For our backs to be four yards and
4.6 and Jaxson 6.0, that's a really good job for those guys
that had really struggled against the run without their pass
rush and defensive end.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Lane, did you consider taking Jaxson out late when
he took another shot there when he scored the
touchdown on the ensuing drive?
LANE KIFFIN: We did. He said it right from as soon as he
got up that he was fine. I went and checked him in the
tent. He came right back. We were hoping we were going
to get the onside kick. I even went in the tent to ask our
training room, and they said he was fine to go.
So he kept playing. I thought he kind of played a little bit
like we did. You know, tough at times and made some
plays, but then some very critical mistakes.
And I really don't like the whole fighting part and, you know,
guys after the whistle. I really didn't think we do that very
much. I thought we're pretty good at that and work really
hard at that are. You know, I don't know. Got to figure out
a better way. I don't know if you get into this world of portal
and so many guys' last game, and that's kind of hard to
manage. Some of those guys know they're on the way out,
but that was disappointing.
Q. The fourth downs in the first half, the fake punt as
well, can you just kind of take us through some of
those decisions?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah. I mean, I didn't want to do it. Marty
wanted to do it. I'm just kidding. That was a joke.
So we run through those things. They have a look. Got
two blockers out there for them. Those things are always
hit or miss. I mean, not hit or miss schematically, but
sometimes you don't have the right scheme.
We had enough guys for them and went and made the cut,
and the guy made a good play, and he slipped before he
got behind them. So it's something that we had worked all
month on with a really good player in D. Wade.
Also, what goes into those is you cannot predict how
games are going. You can just be educated on analytics
and games will tell you what or if you talk to coaches in
your conference, this is going to be a high-scoring game.
They've got a great offense. We've struggled late in the
second half of the season on defense. They've given up a
lot of yards. Not as many points, but a lot of yards. Kind of
like today.
So, you know, going in it was you are going to have to
steal some possessions and take some risks. Actually,
that really wasn't -- I'm not backing them. Those actually a
lot of times didn't go right into points. Sometimes we would
stop them at field goals, and sometimes it's easier to play
on a short field, as crazy as that sounds, against an
offense like us that builds on pushing the ball in tempo.
So, obviously, that's not the plan to not make it, but those
were critical decisions. They didn't work out, and I think it
stopped and started early. Getting beat on fourth and one.
You know, where we don't make the Brock, and the guy
hits us in the back field. It was discouraging because they
had a lot of similar fourth downs and did a really good job
with some really good scheme runs to scheme us up.
Q. Coach, can you talk about when Texas Tech came
out on offense the first play of the game, they came
out in an air raid. It was an honor to Mike Leach.
LANE KIFFIN: That was a cool idea that their coach had.
He mentioned it to me yesterday at the luncheon. I thought
that was really cool. I joked with him and said we need all
the help we can get, so we're not going to decline it.
No, I just think that goes with Coach Leach. Being in
different conferences with hem, being around the coaches
and players, there's not many people that leave places in
coaching because sometimes you're fired, sometimes you
leave, which he has done both of those, and then the
places still -- the places still honor them. That just shows
how he impacted people.
I always said with him, I don't know how he did it, but he
always had time for a long conversation with everybody,
and I think that shows why people cared so much.
Q. (Inaudible) there was a lot of players it that were
down there in the game with injuries. Do you have a
status update on any of the players, and also was
there any complaints about turf or anything with them
all going down?
LANE KIFFIN: No. We don't really report on injuries, but
we didn't -- I know people do that. So, again, you don't
cover us, but I just tell you how it is. When our guys were
injured, that really wasn't benefitting us, because they had
short fields the whole day because we kept giving them the
ball.
When teams do that, I can tell you it's usually because
there's long drives going on. That's why they do that.
Those were legitimate, and it there were injuries
happening. Probably part of having a long layoff.
You know, we talked about in the last press conference,
you know, so the using of the time-out was just very
frustrating, the situation. It did not win or lose the game.
But just so you guys know, because I like our players to be
composed, okay, you know, I'm told on our sideline after
that long thing, after the fumble, which we got a lot of good
momentum going, so we fumbled the ball back, they get
the ball, and there's this big fight. And we're yelling at our
players, and their coaches are taking their No. 11 off the
field, screaming at him, because he spit on our player.
And so the side judge on my side says to me, listen, they're
11, and he actually points that way, they're 11, going to be
ejected, your 71, fought back, so he is going to get a
penalty too.
So I'm, like, okay. Then all of a sudden they announce our
11. Well, our 11 was Jordan Watkins who wasn't in the
fight. It was their 11 fighting 71 that everybody knew
because their own coaches were yelling at the guy. There
was a racial slur involved. That's not the point of what
we're talking about, about the spitting part and the penalty
that was said.
So look, I brought our own 71 up to the officials and said,
right or wrong, do you see him crying? He is not crying
because he spit on him. He is crying because he got spit
on and something was said. It just didn't make any sense.
It was really poor to have that many officials that
communicate. They all have these wires in and all talk,
and they did a great job on some other ones of getting
them right, but that's not good.
You talk about spitting on people and calling the wrong No.
11 who if you meet Jordan Watkins, Jordan Watkins isn't
doing that if you know him. He is the receiver. He isn't in a
fight with the defensive lineman or the left tackle.
So that's why I was so discouraged because they had still
told me he was ejected so now I'm trying to game plan on
the sidelines, yelling at Jordan, getting our subs all right.
And Jordan is, like, Coach, I swear to God I did not spit on
this guy, nor did I come close to spitting on him.
Here's our other tackle crying talking about how derogatory
it was, what was said, and he was spit on. So that's why I
called time-out to try to get them to get it right. You got all
these officials, guys. Communicate. That's a big deal.
You know, if you are going to eject.
Then they say, well, he is not ejected. So did he spit or
not? So now he is not ejected because you're not really
sure which 11. That's why, just so you know because I tell
our players to keep their composure, and I'm going to
defend our players when, you know, a kid is spit on and
then accused to the audience, national audience that it's
him, and Jordan has to deal with this.
That's why that was.
Q. This game is still fresh.
LANE KIFFIN: Again, that had nothing to do with why we
lost the game. That was a personal thing about one of our
kids, an amazing kid that they just totally blew it. And
wouldn't change it. Like, just going to sit on it, like, my bad.
That's a pretty big my bad. The kid has family.
Q. This game is still fresh, but when will you kind of
look back at it in the offseason and just this whole
season and kind of evaluate things and where things
might stand?
LANE KIFFIN: I'm not a jump to conclusions because you
lose a game, but, you know, you guys have been around
here. We've won ten games and made changes, so we will
look at everything in our program. I'm sure there will be
some changes made in some areas because I think the
good thing about our fans they know about me, this is not
acceptable. That makes us 8-a5 and finish the season like
that and come down here and do that. There will be some
changes made.
Obviously in the recruiting you have to go right into this
thing because now we've got to figure out all these portal
guys that are in the portal. I have to make sure our guys
aren't getting bought, and we keep our own guys. There's
a lot going on.
But staff and administration around the building and stuff,
we will always look at all that stuff.
Q. Back to this -- that you are talking about. The
Texas Tech player had a racial slur towards a player in
the scrum? Just clarify --
LANE KIFFIN: I'm not going to because I did not hear it
say that happened for sure that he gave a racial slur to our
player. I'm told that was said in that, but I did not hear that.
So that would obviously be a giant issue.
But the issue that I do know is the spitting part from other
players seeing it and their own coaches. Like, I mean, if
you actually watch over there, one of them is kind of
laughing because he got off. He is screaming at the
player. They're losing their mind on him, and then all of a
sudden -- I talked to the head coach afterwards. He is,
like, man, crazy officiating out there. I go, yeah, that's
really bad on that one that your guy spit and our guy got
the penalty. He is, like, yeah, I know.
That's just frustrating to me because it's not a holding.
That's calling a guy's name out to tell national what he did
that was wrong, and you have all these officials to get it
right. It's a big deal.
Q. Coach, what are kind of -- you talk about on the
field changes and stuff, but what are your biggest
take-aways with this group of guys off the field for this
entire season now?
LANE KIFFIN: I think they did a really good job off the
field. I think, you know, we don't have a lot of problems off
the field. They do well in school and stuff.
I don't like the style of penalties today and all the after the
whistle stuff. You know, we've worked hard for years to not
be that way. I think we've always done a good job.
We do things -- you know, there are things we can always
do better and don't do well, but I think in this area we've
done pretty good. You know, Malik has his little moments
today. Last year we mentioned about Malik and what he
has meant and how we've changed him and stuff, so I just
really didn't like that.
And the targeting thing is so frustrating. The guy is sliding.
I mean, come on, guys. First time, bad. Second time,
worse. We've done it throughout the year, so it really -- I'm
the head coach. It's lack of discipline and decision-making.
Q. Kind of that run that you all made right out of the
second half, you all got a stop and you go and score a
touchdown. How proud were you of that response
from the team?
LANE KIFFIN: I said at half, this is going to be a great
comeback. We're going to come back and win this game,
and I really believed it.
I believed we had some good matchups of things. I felt our
defense was playing better than maybe people would have
anticipated with that matchup and making some plays even
without Cedric, which was hard catching that quarterback
without him.
So I had a feeling we could really do it. It wasn't -- I'm
honest with you guys. Oh, we got problems. We got
matchup issues. It wasn't that.
So as you saw, we did the three and out. We went down
and scored. Screwed up the extra point, but I really did
feel leak we could easily do that because I knew the
turnovers in the fourth down were the issues that -- I'm not
saying because we would have punt and we would have
won. I'm saying maybe punt or make the fourth downs and
call better plays, you know? That's why I really thought it
was going to be a really cool comeback, and I thought we
were built that way to come back because they would have
the same problem in four-minute that we do slowing the
game down, so...
Q. Does decision-making come on fourth downs in
those kind of plays, fourth and shorts -- does that
change in bowl games? Would you have handled it
different in a regular season game at all?
LANE KIFFIN: Not really. I mean, it's not like it's
preseason. I mean, the game matters. I'm trying to win
the game.
That was really a pregame decision of, okay, when we
have the analytics support, and we read the books. I know
when it doesn't work, everybody says they're stupid books.
Jimbo will be happy today. The book didn't work.
When you play these matchups versus, let's say, we're a
defense built team versus another defensive team, you're
going to punt in almost all of those. That's why that was
made before the game that we have to be aggressive, and
then we started to play a little better defense, and there
was something in the second half where there was a fake
in the second half that we didn't do that we had lined up to
do because I felt like, okay, now we were playing a little
better.
Q. You just mentioned, they had come out (inaudible)
with three turnovers and it really seemed like it gave
you a chance to come back in the second half. Can
you just speak a little bit more into what you saw from
that and throughout the game?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, they did some good things playing
on a short field. You know, not exactly, but some
Baylor-type feel. You know, the Sugar Bowl where we
were screwing around on offense and them keeping us in
it.
I did. I was proud -- like I say, this generation of recruiting
guys to stay to play a game. You know, Miles Battle has
already taken visits. I've talked to the coaches, you know,
the schools he is going to go to. And here he is making
plays for us in a game, making some critical plays. I was
proud of him. Proud of some guys that were in those
situations.
Even Luke. The play didn't work, but those are some guys
that were going to go out. They went in the portal, and
they weren't going to play and decided play. Even though
it didn't work out with the wins, I think those are things
those guys won't regret.
Q. I know the season just ended, but what is the next
step for this program?
LANE KIFFIN: I mean, we just go to work. There's a
million things to do. You know, you've got -- remember,
your signing day, they're every day because of the portal.
You know, every day you're going to see people go in the
portal, sign places. I just had a player in our portal just on
the way out tell me he is going to take himself out of the
portal and stay.
So it's a different -- it's just different than it used to be
where I could tell you, hey, we have this many days until
the next signing day because no one really signs on that
day anymore. So it's just a new era. I can't really tell you
exactly what it is except go try to build the roster the best
we can, look at the coaching, the recruiting, the
administrative parts of our building, whatever we're doing.
Just look at all of it like we have before. Like I said, we
went 10-2 and made some changes.
We have to always do -- look at everything to make the
program the best. We don't ever say, well, that guy is
okay. We don't do that in coaching. We don't do that in
playing. So we're always looking in the portal to find better
players.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
TaxAct Texas Bowl: Ole
Miss vs Texas Tech
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Houston, Texas, USA
NRG Stadium
Ole Miss Rebels
Coach Lane Kiffin
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: All right, Coach. Start us off.
LANE KIFFIN: Okay. So you guys that cover me know I
don't speak coach speak. When I say this I mean this. I
thought that their staff and players did a great job. I
thought they had them ready to play.
I thought -- we knew they played hard, you know, kind of
overachieving model of team that talk from people in the
conference how hard they play. It happens a lot at home.
We were hoping maybe they didn't do it as well today, but
those guys had some good plans.
I think you're going to -- as a coach you break down the
game and say, okay, yards, points, all that stuff. There's a
lot of similarities in the running and throwing of the ball by
the teams, but, you know, you're going to look really glaring
at fourth downs and turnovers.
So, you know, they did a great -- both were very
aggressive. You know, we were 2 of 7 on the fourth
downs. They were 5 of 6. I thought they had really good
plays and speed options and checking on different things.
I put that on coach. I thought their fourth down schemes
were better than ours, and ours were short of yardage
sometimes and weren't able it move them.
So I do, I give them a lot of credit for how well they
coached and how hard they played. After the fourth down
and turnovers and, you know, do some analytic chart, and
you're going to be 99.9%. If you don't make five fourth
downs and you turn over, what, five times, that's 10.
One of those fourth downs is a turnover, so it's really nine
times, right? If I just did the math right, that's nine times
you give them the ball back without kicks going or scores
going on. So that's not going to bode well, and it didn't
tonight.
I thought we had a little rally there in the second half.
Jaxson had a really poor first half, and he would tell you.
Some critical plays. Obviously, the turnovers. Fourth
down with the guy in the flat, and he thought it was a
different play and took a shot deep, which killed some
momentum there on a fourth and one.
It's a shame because this would have been a great game
to win down here versus a very good team and go out for
these guys that were the last game.
So, again, credit to them. I thought they did a great job
stopping the run for a team that's run the ball extremely
well most of the year. For our backs to be four yards and
4.6 and Jaxson 6.0, that's a really good job for those guys
that had really struggled against the run without their pass
rush and defensive end.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Lane, did you consider taking Jaxson out late when
he took another shot there when he scored the
touchdown on the ensuing drive?
LANE KIFFIN: We did. He said it right from as soon as he
got up that he was fine. I went and checked him in the
tent. He came right back. We were hoping we were going
to get the onside kick. I even went in the tent to ask our
training room, and they said he was fine to go.
So he kept playing. I thought he kind of played a little bit
like we did. You know, tough at times and made some
plays, but then some very critical mistakes.
And I really don't like the whole fighting part and, you know,
guys after the whistle. I really didn't think we do that very
much. I thought we're pretty good at that and work really
hard at that are. You know, I don't know. Got to figure out
a better way. I don't know if you get into this world of portal
and so many guys' last game, and that's kind of hard to
manage. Some of those guys know they're on the way out,
but that was disappointing.
Q. The fourth downs in the first half, the fake punt as
well, can you just kind of take us through some of
those decisions?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah. I mean, I didn't want to do it. Marty
wanted to do it. I'm just kidding. That was a joke.
So we run through those things. They have a look. Got
two blockers out there for them. Those things are always
hit or miss. I mean, not hit or miss schematically, but
sometimes you don't have the right scheme.
We had enough guys for them and went and made the cut,
and the guy made a good play, and he slipped before he
got behind them. So it's something that we had worked all
month on with a really good player in D. Wade.
Also, what goes into those is you cannot predict how
games are going. You can just be educated on analytics
and games will tell you what or if you talk to coaches in
your conference, this is going to be a high-scoring game.
They've got a great offense. We've struggled late in the
second half of the season on defense. They've given up a
lot of yards. Not as many points, but a lot of yards. Kind of
like today.
So, you know, going in it was you are going to have to
steal some possessions and take some risks. Actually,
that really wasn't -- I'm not backing them. Those actually a
lot of times didn't go right into points. Sometimes we would
stop them at field goals, and sometimes it's easier to play
on a short field, as crazy as that sounds, against an
offense like us that builds on pushing the ball in tempo.
So, obviously, that's not the plan to not make it, but those
were critical decisions. They didn't work out, and I think it
stopped and started early. Getting beat on fourth and one.
You know, where we don't make the Brock, and the guy
hits us in the back field. It was discouraging because they
had a lot of similar fourth downs and did a really good job
with some really good scheme runs to scheme us up.
Q. Coach, can you talk about when Texas Tech came
out on offense the first play of the game, they came
out in an air raid. It was an honor to Mike Leach.
LANE KIFFIN: That was a cool idea that their coach had.
He mentioned it to me yesterday at the luncheon. I thought
that was really cool. I joked with him and said we need all
the help we can get, so we're not going to decline it.
No, I just think that goes with Coach Leach. Being in
different conferences with hem, being around the coaches
and players, there's not many people that leave places in
coaching because sometimes you're fired, sometimes you
leave, which he has done both of those, and then the
places still -- the places still honor them. That just shows
how he impacted people.
I always said with him, I don't know how he did it, but he
always had time for a long conversation with everybody,
and I think that shows why people cared so much.
Q. (Inaudible) there was a lot of players it that were
down there in the game with injuries. Do you have a
status update on any of the players, and also was
there any complaints about turf or anything with them
all going down?
LANE KIFFIN: No. We don't really report on injuries, but
we didn't -- I know people do that. So, again, you don't
cover us, but I just tell you how it is. When our guys were
injured, that really wasn't benefitting us, because they had
short fields the whole day because we kept giving them the
ball.
When teams do that, I can tell you it's usually because
there's long drives going on. That's why they do that.
Those were legitimate, and it there were injuries
happening. Probably part of having a long layoff.
You know, we talked about in the last press conference,
you know, so the using of the time-out was just very
frustrating, the situation. It did not win or lose the game.
But just so you guys know, because I like our players to be
composed, okay, you know, I'm told on our sideline after
that long thing, after the fumble, which we got a lot of good
momentum going, so we fumbled the ball back, they get
the ball, and there's this big fight. And we're yelling at our
players, and their coaches are taking their No. 11 off the
field, screaming at him, because he spit on our player.
And so the side judge on my side says to me, listen, they're
11, and he actually points that way, they're 11, going to be
ejected, your 71, fought back, so he is going to get a
penalty too.
So I'm, like, okay. Then all of a sudden they announce our
11. Well, our 11 was Jordan Watkins who wasn't in the
fight. It was their 11 fighting 71 that everybody knew
because their own coaches were yelling at the guy. There
was a racial slur involved. That's not the point of what
we're talking about, about the spitting part and the penalty
that was said.
So look, I brought our own 71 up to the officials and said,
right or wrong, do you see him crying? He is not crying
because he spit on him. He is crying because he got spit
on and something was said. It just didn't make any sense.
It was really poor to have that many officials that
communicate. They all have these wires in and all talk,
and they did a great job on some other ones of getting
them right, but that's not good.
You talk about spitting on people and calling the wrong No.
11 who if you meet Jordan Watkins, Jordan Watkins isn't
doing that if you know him. He is the receiver. He isn't in a
fight with the defensive lineman or the left tackle.
So that's why I was so discouraged because they had still
told me he was ejected so now I'm trying to game plan on
the sidelines, yelling at Jordan, getting our subs all right.
And Jordan is, like, Coach, I swear to God I did not spit on
this guy, nor did I come close to spitting on him.
Here's our other tackle crying talking about how derogatory
it was, what was said, and he was spit on. So that's why I
called time-out to try to get them to get it right. You got all
these officials, guys. Communicate. That's a big deal.
You know, if you are going to eject.
Then they say, well, he is not ejected. So did he spit or
not? So now he is not ejected because you're not really
sure which 11. That's why, just so you know because I tell
our players to keep their composure, and I'm going to
defend our players when, you know, a kid is spit on and
then accused to the audience, national audience that it's
him, and Jordan has to deal with this.
That's why that was.
Q. This game is still fresh.
LANE KIFFIN: Again, that had nothing to do with why we
lost the game. That was a personal thing about one of our
kids, an amazing kid that they just totally blew it. And
wouldn't change it. Like, just going to sit on it, like, my bad.
That's a pretty big my bad. The kid has family.
Q. This game is still fresh, but when will you kind of
look back at it in the offseason and just this whole
season and kind of evaluate things and where things
might stand?
LANE KIFFIN: I'm not a jump to conclusions because you
lose a game, but, you know, you guys have been around
here. We've won ten games and made changes, so we will
look at everything in our program. I'm sure there will be
some changes made in some areas because I think the
good thing about our fans they know about me, this is not
acceptable. That makes us 8-a5 and finish the season like
that and come down here and do that. There will be some
changes made.
Obviously in the recruiting you have to go right into this
thing because now we've got to figure out all these portal
guys that are in the portal. I have to make sure our guys
aren't getting bought, and we keep our own guys. There's
a lot going on.
But staff and administration around the building and stuff,
we will always look at all that stuff.
Q. Back to this -- that you are talking about. The
Texas Tech player had a racial slur towards a player in
the scrum? Just clarify --
LANE KIFFIN: I'm not going to because I did not hear it
say that happened for sure that he gave a racial slur to our
player. I'm told that was said in that, but I did not hear that.
So that would obviously be a giant issue.
But the issue that I do know is the spitting part from other
players seeing it and their own coaches. Like, I mean, if
you actually watch over there, one of them is kind of
laughing because he got off. He is screaming at the
player. They're losing their mind on him, and then all of a
sudden -- I talked to the head coach afterwards. He is,
like, man, crazy officiating out there. I go, yeah, that's
really bad on that one that your guy spit and our guy got
the penalty. He is, like, yeah, I know.
That's just frustrating to me because it's not a holding.
That's calling a guy's name out to tell national what he did
that was wrong, and you have all these officials to get it
right. It's a big deal.
Q. Coach, what are kind of -- you talk about on the
field changes and stuff, but what are your biggest
take-aways with this group of guys off the field for this
entire season now?
LANE KIFFIN: I think they did a really good job off the
field. I think, you know, we don't have a lot of problems off
the field. They do well in school and stuff.
I don't like the style of penalties today and all the after the
whistle stuff. You know, we've worked hard for years to not
be that way. I think we've always done a good job.
We do things -- you know, there are things we can always
do better and don't do well, but I think in this area we've
done pretty good. You know, Malik has his little moments
today. Last year we mentioned about Malik and what he
has meant and how we've changed him and stuff, so I just
really didn't like that.
And the targeting thing is so frustrating. The guy is sliding.
I mean, come on, guys. First time, bad. Second time,
worse. We've done it throughout the year, so it really -- I'm
the head coach. It's lack of discipline and decision-making.
Q. Kind of that run that you all made right out of the
second half, you all got a stop and you go and score a
touchdown. How proud were you of that response
from the team?
LANE KIFFIN: I said at half, this is going to be a great
comeback. We're going to come back and win this game,
and I really believed it.
I believed we had some good matchups of things. I felt our
defense was playing better than maybe people would have
anticipated with that matchup and making some plays even
without Cedric, which was hard catching that quarterback
without him.
So I had a feeling we could really do it. It wasn't -- I'm
honest with you guys. Oh, we got problems. We got
matchup issues. It wasn't that.
So as you saw, we did the three and out. We went down
and scored. Screwed up the extra point, but I really did
feel leak we could easily do that because I knew the
turnovers in the fourth down were the issues that -- I'm not
saying because we would have punt and we would have
won. I'm saying maybe punt or make the fourth downs and
call better plays, you know? That's why I really thought it
was going to be a really cool comeback, and I thought we
were built that way to come back because they would have
the same problem in four-minute that we do slowing the
game down, so...
Q. Does decision-making come on fourth downs in
those kind of plays, fourth and shorts -- does that
change in bowl games? Would you have handled it
different in a regular season game at all?
LANE KIFFIN: Not really. I mean, it's not like it's
preseason. I mean, the game matters. I'm trying to win
the game.
That was really a pregame decision of, okay, when we
have the analytics support, and we read the books. I know
when it doesn't work, everybody says they're stupid books.
Jimbo will be happy today. The book didn't work.
When you play these matchups versus, let's say, we're a
defense built team versus another defensive team, you're
going to punt in almost all of those. That's why that was
made before the game that we have to be aggressive, and
then we started to play a little better defense, and there
was something in the second half where there was a fake
in the second half that we didn't do that we had lined up to
do because I felt like, okay, now we were playing a little
better.
Q. You just mentioned, they had come out (inaudible)
with three turnovers and it really seemed like it gave
you a chance to come back in the second half. Can
you just speak a little bit more into what you saw from
that and throughout the game?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, they did some good things playing
on a short field. You know, not exactly, but some
Baylor-type feel. You know, the Sugar Bowl where we
were screwing around on offense and them keeping us in
it.
I did. I was proud -- like I say, this generation of recruiting
guys to stay to play a game. You know, Miles Battle has
already taken visits. I've talked to the coaches, you know,
the schools he is going to go to. And here he is making
plays for us in a game, making some critical plays. I was
proud of him. Proud of some guys that were in those
situations.
Even Luke. The play didn't work, but those are some guys
that were going to go out. They went in the portal, and
they weren't going to play and decided play. Even though
it didn't work out with the wins, I think those are things
those guys won't regret.
Q. I know the season just ended, but what is the next
step for this program?
LANE KIFFIN: I mean, we just go to work. There's a
million things to do. You know, you've got -- remember,
your signing day, they're every day because of the portal.
You know, every day you're going to see people go in the
portal, sign places. I just had a player in our portal just on
the way out tell me he is going to take himself out of the
portal and stay.
So it's a different -- it's just different than it used to be
where I could tell you, hey, we have this many days until
the next signing day because no one really signs on that
day anymore. So it's just a new era. I can't really tell you
exactly what it is except go try to build the roster the best
we can, look at the coaching, the recruiting, the
administrative parts of our building, whatever we're doing.
Just look at all of it like we have before. Like I said, we
went 10-2 and made some changes.
We have to always do -- look at everything to make the
program the best. We don't ever say, well, that guy is
okay. We don't do that in coaching. We don't do that in
playing. So we're always looking in the portal to find better
players.
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