TaxSlayer Gator Bowl:
Duke vs Ole Miss
Friday, January 3, 2025
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
TIAA Bank Field
Ole Miss Rebels
Lane Kiffin
Press Conference
Ole Miss 52, Duke 20
LANE KIFFIN: Exciting day for Ole Miss, for the players,
for the fans. That's a really good team that we played, a
team that won nine games, had one of the best defenses
statistically in the country. I think they were best in
negative plays in the ACC, creating those, and very
well-coached.
I think our guys -- I know our guys talked a lot over the
course of the month, especially the last week, of making
this statement, feeling that they were left out of the
playoffs, so they really wanted to make a statement against
an ACC team that had two teams in the playoffs and a
team that they looked at as taking SMU to overtime.
Proud of the way that they played. We screwed up with
the fake field goal early, but outside of that, just completely
dominated a nine-win team on offense and defense in the
game. That was great to see.
I do apologize, I told Manny at the end, Jaxson's
touchdown pass to Jordan, that was just those two guys. I
actually tried to take Jaxson out if you saw earlier, and he
refused to go out, which says a lot about him. But he and
Jordan came up with that play on their own, and he was
supposed to hand the ball off. I didn't like that part.
But the rest of the day was a really big statement about
these guys, not just how good of a team they are, 10 wins,
and all 10 wins I think are double-digit wins. I don't think
many people are able to say that. But these are games
that a lot of teams struggle to show up for, players opt out,
or even if they don't, we've seen some teams that were
really good teams struggle in a non-playoff bowl game. I
was really pleased for our guys to show up, 8:00 start here.
It was great to see.
Q. I know that you had no doubt that Jaxson was
going to play and play hard, but on his first play did
you really want him to take Alex Howard head on?
LANE KIFFIN: That's just who he is. Obviously he didn't
listen very well because we subbed him out if you didn't
notice. Austin came in and he just waves him off.
I think kind of when kids get a certain age they don't listen
to you as well. I felt like that was kind of the case today
with his touchdown pass and running people over instead
of sliding and then not coming out of the game. But he's
awesome.
I hope that regardless of how wins and losses go, I hope
that our fans appreciate this time frame of what's going on
with Ole Miss football but specifically this quarterback,
all-time winningest quarterback, all-time most yards. That's
special. I've played football a long time with some really
good quarterbacks. Just hope everybody appreciates what
they saw, statistically in the play, but what they saw from a
competitor and leader that a lot of guys wouldn't even have
played in the game.
Q. Lane, your team kind of returned to a bygone era of
college football with guys opting into the game rather
than opting out. What do you have to say about guys
like Jaxson and JJ and Jared, some of the ones that
built the foundation of this team, and what they've
done throughout the course of their time at Ole Miss?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, I think it was an amazing statement
of what they did because you have some guys that have
been here for a while, like you mentioned, Ivey and JJ and
Jaxson and some others -- even Bentley had talked about
preparing for the draft. But they had been here a while.
Then you had newer guys like Walter, Nolan, potential
first-round pick, Princely, really high pick that played. I met
with Walter at half and said, okay, now you should come
out, and he still went and played in the first couple series of
the second half.
I told them last night, you are an old-school football in that
mentality. Like you actually care about your team and your
brothers in the locker room and you're playing for them.
That doesn't happen very much anymore, unfortunately. I
told them, actually that's how it always was, and they didn't
151735-1-1002 2025-01-03 05:20:00 GMT Page 1 of 3
realize that.
Q. This is you guys' third 10-win season in four years.
It's just the 10th in the 100 some years it's been. What
has that history meant to you and what you've built
here in just five years?
LANE KIFFIN: Well, I think it says a lot. I think it says a
lot, too, because the SEC is so competitive now, and
you've got even newer teams in the SEC since way back --
probably four have come in, just two in the last year.
It just says a lot about these players in this era to do that.
It says a lot about the commitment from the chancellor,
from Keith when they hired us, and then continual
commitment throughout that process, not just here's the job
but then we needed things. We needed things with
facilities. We needed things with staff budget to be able to
get coaches like we have and be able to get a Pete
Golding to come. They've given us everything we've ever
asked for.
Q. You mentioned in the trophy presentation that
you're just getting started, that you're building for next
year, that kind of thing. You obviously lose a lot of not
just players but leaders off of this team. How difficult
will it be to billed to replace those guys and build
without taking a step back?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, I probably wouldn't have been so
confident if we hadn't done some of this before. I feel like
when Matt Corral left, I feel like a lot of people thought
we're going to have this downswing and that was just kind
of a Matt Corral thing.
Our team, I know we won 10 games, we won 11 the year
before, that's 21 in two years, but our team this year was a
better team. We lost three one-score games that two of
them we have the ball up by four with two, two and a half
minutes left and make a couple 1st downs and we win the
game. The team before went 4-0 in one-score games, so
we were actually a better team as you look at now you've
got 10 wins and double-digit wins. That doesn't happen
very often with SEC teams and the good bowl teams.
My point is we can keep getting better just continuing to
add players and add pieces and keeping our staff together,
too, which has been very critical. I think we said at the
beginning of the year, I should remember this, I feel like
this was the first year where all three coordinators, we
were able to keep them maybe the whole time that we've
been here. We've always lost one or two of them every
year.
Q. We've asked you so much about Jaxson this year,
but with respect to the future with Austin, what do you
hope Austin picks up on about Jaxson with sitting
under him, and how do you hope Jaxson can rub off
on who's next?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, when I say this team is like a family,
it really is because of the way that they just played for each
other. Again, you're playing the second half of a blowout
and guys are going back into the game. I'm not going to
say which ones specifically, guys that we were told actually
weren't team type of guys at their previous places. So to
see that is such a family -- like the players here help
change the ones coming in.
Then I look at the family in the quarterback room, and then
when you say that about Austin, he had this big brother
show him every way to do every single thing right except
for making his own plays up at the end.
So that's so valuable. It's one thing just to learn how a guy
works, but how he prepares, how he works, how he treats
people, how he wins his team over. Austin, that's a really
awesome thing Austin got to experience.
Q. That throw from Jaxson where he was fading left
and threw it 51 yards to Watkins, from our vantage
point pretty spectacular. How special is a throw like
that?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, that really was an amazing throw.
He'd had a great couple weeks of practice. He was hurt, I
don't remember exactly how many games, but there at the
end he was hurt with his ankle and wasn't the same, and
he got hit pretty hard in that Florida game, wasn't the same
in the fourth quarter in that game, and then limped around
kind of in the Egg Bowl. Him having a full month being full
strength, he showed how he played earlier before he got
hurt, and again, we had some bad breaks this year, and
the best receiver in the country wasn't even out there just
like he wasn't out there for -- what, I think he played in five
games.
For Jaxson to do that, set those records, not having him
after five and a half games or something is amazing.
Q. This whole year you could say has been deeply
affected your team with the transfer portal adding all
those guys and Duke being down their top two
quarterbacks, what are your overall thoughts on the
transfer portal and specifically you had to add guys
while you're also prepping for Duke in December.
What are your overall thoughts on maybe the timing of
that, as well?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, I think, as I mentioned, it's a really
151735-1-1002 2025-01-03 05:20:00 GMT Page 2 of 3
broke system that's got to be fixed. To have portal -- we
lost guys going in the portal, a couple defensive starters or
a couple starters that went in the portal that would have
been playing, so kind of affected us as well as them,
especially their quarterback situation.
That's why I was proud of our offense. That was a really
good defense that caused a lot of problems that didn't have
any opt-outs. Them not having their quarterback didn't
have anything to do with whatever it was, 589 yards of
offense. That was our offensive players playing really well
against a really good defense with a tough scheme. I was
really pleased by that.
Q. You mentioned all the offense, 447 for Jaxson
tonight. Where do you feel like this ranks as far as
games you've seen him play over the years? It's a
pretty special way to go out.
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, it really is. I feel like he did this
similar game against Penn State in a bowl game last year.
I don't know if the stats were quite as large, but similar
defense, it was Manny's defense at Penn State, and he
made just a lot of great, really accurate throws. Players
made plays for him, Trey was playing that day. But this
was a really good game. He had the one kind of lateral
called back that screwed up the one drive.
But 27 of 35 for 404, four touchdowns, no interceptions is
pretty awesome.
The Gator Bowl was amazing this week. The hospitality,
the hotel over there, the people were awesome and really
made it a great experience. So I want to thank all them. It
was awesome. Thanks.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
Duke vs Ole Miss
Friday, January 3, 2025
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
TIAA Bank Field
Ole Miss Rebels
Lane Kiffin
Press Conference
Ole Miss 52, Duke 20
LANE KIFFIN: Exciting day for Ole Miss, for the players,
for the fans. That's a really good team that we played, a
team that won nine games, had one of the best defenses
statistically in the country. I think they were best in
negative plays in the ACC, creating those, and very
well-coached.
I think our guys -- I know our guys talked a lot over the
course of the month, especially the last week, of making
this statement, feeling that they were left out of the
playoffs, so they really wanted to make a statement against
an ACC team that had two teams in the playoffs and a
team that they looked at as taking SMU to overtime.
Proud of the way that they played. We screwed up with
the fake field goal early, but outside of that, just completely
dominated a nine-win team on offense and defense in the
game. That was great to see.
I do apologize, I told Manny at the end, Jaxson's
touchdown pass to Jordan, that was just those two guys. I
actually tried to take Jaxson out if you saw earlier, and he
refused to go out, which says a lot about him. But he and
Jordan came up with that play on their own, and he was
supposed to hand the ball off. I didn't like that part.
But the rest of the day was a really big statement about
these guys, not just how good of a team they are, 10 wins,
and all 10 wins I think are double-digit wins. I don't think
many people are able to say that. But these are games
that a lot of teams struggle to show up for, players opt out,
or even if they don't, we've seen some teams that were
really good teams struggle in a non-playoff bowl game. I
was really pleased for our guys to show up, 8:00 start here.
It was great to see.
Q. I know that you had no doubt that Jaxson was
going to play and play hard, but on his first play did
you really want him to take Alex Howard head on?
LANE KIFFIN: That's just who he is. Obviously he didn't
listen very well because we subbed him out if you didn't
notice. Austin came in and he just waves him off.
I think kind of when kids get a certain age they don't listen
to you as well. I felt like that was kind of the case today
with his touchdown pass and running people over instead
of sliding and then not coming out of the game. But he's
awesome.
I hope that regardless of how wins and losses go, I hope
that our fans appreciate this time frame of what's going on
with Ole Miss football but specifically this quarterback,
all-time winningest quarterback, all-time most yards. That's
special. I've played football a long time with some really
good quarterbacks. Just hope everybody appreciates what
they saw, statistically in the play, but what they saw from a
competitor and leader that a lot of guys wouldn't even have
played in the game.
Q. Lane, your team kind of returned to a bygone era of
college football with guys opting into the game rather
than opting out. What do you have to say about guys
like Jaxson and JJ and Jared, some of the ones that
built the foundation of this team, and what they've
done throughout the course of their time at Ole Miss?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, I think it was an amazing statement
of what they did because you have some guys that have
been here for a while, like you mentioned, Ivey and JJ and
Jaxson and some others -- even Bentley had talked about
preparing for the draft. But they had been here a while.
Then you had newer guys like Walter, Nolan, potential
first-round pick, Princely, really high pick that played. I met
with Walter at half and said, okay, now you should come
out, and he still went and played in the first couple series of
the second half.
I told them last night, you are an old-school football in that
mentality. Like you actually care about your team and your
brothers in the locker room and you're playing for them.
That doesn't happen very much anymore, unfortunately. I
told them, actually that's how it always was, and they didn't
151735-1-1002 2025-01-03 05:20:00 GMT Page 1 of 3
realize that.
Q. This is you guys' third 10-win season in four years.
It's just the 10th in the 100 some years it's been. What
has that history meant to you and what you've built
here in just five years?
LANE KIFFIN: Well, I think it says a lot. I think it says a
lot, too, because the SEC is so competitive now, and
you've got even newer teams in the SEC since way back --
probably four have come in, just two in the last year.
It just says a lot about these players in this era to do that.
It says a lot about the commitment from the chancellor,
from Keith when they hired us, and then continual
commitment throughout that process, not just here's the job
but then we needed things. We needed things with
facilities. We needed things with staff budget to be able to
get coaches like we have and be able to get a Pete
Golding to come. They've given us everything we've ever
asked for.
Q. You mentioned in the trophy presentation that
you're just getting started, that you're building for next
year, that kind of thing. You obviously lose a lot of not
just players but leaders off of this team. How difficult
will it be to billed to replace those guys and build
without taking a step back?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, I probably wouldn't have been so
confident if we hadn't done some of this before. I feel like
when Matt Corral left, I feel like a lot of people thought
we're going to have this downswing and that was just kind
of a Matt Corral thing.
Our team, I know we won 10 games, we won 11 the year
before, that's 21 in two years, but our team this year was a
better team. We lost three one-score games that two of
them we have the ball up by four with two, two and a half
minutes left and make a couple 1st downs and we win the
game. The team before went 4-0 in one-score games, so
we were actually a better team as you look at now you've
got 10 wins and double-digit wins. That doesn't happen
very often with SEC teams and the good bowl teams.
My point is we can keep getting better just continuing to
add players and add pieces and keeping our staff together,
too, which has been very critical. I think we said at the
beginning of the year, I should remember this, I feel like
this was the first year where all three coordinators, we
were able to keep them maybe the whole time that we've
been here. We've always lost one or two of them every
year.
Q. We've asked you so much about Jaxson this year,
but with respect to the future with Austin, what do you
hope Austin picks up on about Jaxson with sitting
under him, and how do you hope Jaxson can rub off
on who's next?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, when I say this team is like a family,
it really is because of the way that they just played for each
other. Again, you're playing the second half of a blowout
and guys are going back into the game. I'm not going to
say which ones specifically, guys that we were told actually
weren't team type of guys at their previous places. So to
see that is such a family -- like the players here help
change the ones coming in.
Then I look at the family in the quarterback room, and then
when you say that about Austin, he had this big brother
show him every way to do every single thing right except
for making his own plays up at the end.
So that's so valuable. It's one thing just to learn how a guy
works, but how he prepares, how he works, how he treats
people, how he wins his team over. Austin, that's a really
awesome thing Austin got to experience.
Q. That throw from Jaxson where he was fading left
and threw it 51 yards to Watkins, from our vantage
point pretty spectacular. How special is a throw like
that?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, that really was an amazing throw.
He'd had a great couple weeks of practice. He was hurt, I
don't remember exactly how many games, but there at the
end he was hurt with his ankle and wasn't the same, and
he got hit pretty hard in that Florida game, wasn't the same
in the fourth quarter in that game, and then limped around
kind of in the Egg Bowl. Him having a full month being full
strength, he showed how he played earlier before he got
hurt, and again, we had some bad breaks this year, and
the best receiver in the country wasn't even out there just
like he wasn't out there for -- what, I think he played in five
games.
For Jaxson to do that, set those records, not having him
after five and a half games or something is amazing.
Q. This whole year you could say has been deeply
affected your team with the transfer portal adding all
those guys and Duke being down their top two
quarterbacks, what are your overall thoughts on the
transfer portal and specifically you had to add guys
while you're also prepping for Duke in December.
What are your overall thoughts on maybe the timing of
that, as well?
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, I think, as I mentioned, it's a really
151735-1-1002 2025-01-03 05:20:00 GMT Page 2 of 3
broke system that's got to be fixed. To have portal -- we
lost guys going in the portal, a couple defensive starters or
a couple starters that went in the portal that would have
been playing, so kind of affected us as well as them,
especially their quarterback situation.
That's why I was proud of our offense. That was a really
good defense that caused a lot of problems that didn't have
any opt-outs. Them not having their quarterback didn't
have anything to do with whatever it was, 589 yards of
offense. That was our offensive players playing really well
against a really good defense with a tough scheme. I was
really pleased by that.
Q. You mentioned all the offense, 447 for Jaxson
tonight. Where do you feel like this ranks as far as
games you've seen him play over the years? It's a
pretty special way to go out.
LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, it really is. I feel like he did this
similar game against Penn State in a bowl game last year.
I don't know if the stats were quite as large, but similar
defense, it was Manny's defense at Penn State, and he
made just a lot of great, really accurate throws. Players
made plays for him, Trey was playing that day. But this
was a really good game. He had the one kind of lateral
called back that screwed up the one drive.
But 27 of 35 for 404, four touchdowns, no interceptions is
pretty awesome.
The Gator Bowl was amazing this week. The hospitality,
the hotel over there, the people were awesome and really
made it a great experience. So I want to thank all them. It
was awesome. Thanks.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
