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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Football Practice Report: Week 9
11/18/2020 | Football
Kiffin Details Rebels' Off-Week Plans, Previews Egg Bowl
OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss football team resumed a typical bye week schedule with the postponement of this weekend's road trip to Texas A&M.
Head coach Lane Kiffin's Rebels went good-on-good to start the week before mixing in preparations for next weekend's Egg Bowl matchup with Mississippi State.
"Just trying to figure out the best thing within the changing situations that keep happening," Kiffin said. "These three practices have been like what we would've done with a bye. Yesterday was all good-on-good. No Mississippi State. Today was half-and-half. Tomorrow will be half-and-half. Similar thing we did for Vanderbilt."
While many programs continue to struggle with COVID-19, the Rebels tested out clean this week with no new positive tests. Kiffin and his staff have adjusted their practice schedule to have a session on Saturday—partially to keep players' workloads consistent, but also to prevent them from traveling out of town and risking contracting the virus.
"We did have good week of tests—100 percent on those, so we need to keep that up, including this weekend," Kiffin said. "They won't be leaving with having practice and check-ins Friday and Sunday also. So hopefully that keeps us in a good COVID spot. It's not going to be a scrimmage like that. It's going to be much more like a practice. I'm more concerned about play counts and GPS numbers being similar to a game, so it's like they played a game without the wear and tear of the tackling part. We're just making this up on the fly, because we've never dealt with a situation like this."
As Ole Miss works its way through the unfamiliar situation, the Bulldogs return to the field this weekend to take on Georgia. Then, Egg Bowl week officially begins with MSU coming up to Oxford for a 3 p.m. CT kick next Saturday.
"I know there's a lot of tradition in this rivalry—not the friendliest of rivalries I think is the best way of putting it," Kiffin said. "But they're all big games, especially when every game is SEC. It'd be really good to get back on the winning track of this game. A lot of times these affect recruiting. I don't think kids 100 percent go because a team wins or loses, but it's just always awesome to win rivalry games for fans. They've got a whole year of talking about it."
It'll be the first Egg Bowl meeting between Kiffin and Bulldog head coach Mike Leach, however, it's not the first time the two coaches have crossed paths. The last time the pair coached against one another was Week 2 of the 2013 season, where Leach's Washington State squad edged Kiffin and USC—though not in the shootout one might expect.
"We know each other from being out there (in the Pac-12)," Kiffin said. "Little-known fact that the last time we played, you'd think there would've been a lot of points. Actually, we lost to him 10-7, and if I recall, we threw a pick-six in the game. So we only scored seven and they only scored three on offense, which would probably surprise people. That game didn't help my longevity of my career at USC. I think that was two games before I got fired. That didn't go over real well, losing in The Coliseum to Washington State. It's our turn to win."
Head coach Lane Kiffin's Rebels went good-on-good to start the week before mixing in preparations for next weekend's Egg Bowl matchup with Mississippi State.
"Just trying to figure out the best thing within the changing situations that keep happening," Kiffin said. "These three practices have been like what we would've done with a bye. Yesterday was all good-on-good. No Mississippi State. Today was half-and-half. Tomorrow will be half-and-half. Similar thing we did for Vanderbilt."
While many programs continue to struggle with COVID-19, the Rebels tested out clean this week with no new positive tests. Kiffin and his staff have adjusted their practice schedule to have a session on Saturday—partially to keep players' workloads consistent, but also to prevent them from traveling out of town and risking contracting the virus.
"We did have good week of tests—100 percent on those, so we need to keep that up, including this weekend," Kiffin said. "They won't be leaving with having practice and check-ins Friday and Sunday also. So hopefully that keeps us in a good COVID spot. It's not going to be a scrimmage like that. It's going to be much more like a practice. I'm more concerned about play counts and GPS numbers being similar to a game, so it's like they played a game without the wear and tear of the tackling part. We're just making this up on the fly, because we've never dealt with a situation like this."
As Ole Miss works its way through the unfamiliar situation, the Bulldogs return to the field this weekend to take on Georgia. Then, Egg Bowl week officially begins with MSU coming up to Oxford for a 3 p.m. CT kick next Saturday.
"I know there's a lot of tradition in this rivalry—not the friendliest of rivalries I think is the best way of putting it," Kiffin said. "But they're all big games, especially when every game is SEC. It'd be really good to get back on the winning track of this game. A lot of times these affect recruiting. I don't think kids 100 percent go because a team wins or loses, but it's just always awesome to win rivalry games for fans. They've got a whole year of talking about it."
It'll be the first Egg Bowl meeting between Kiffin and Bulldog head coach Mike Leach, however, it's not the first time the two coaches have crossed paths. The last time the pair coached against one another was Week 2 of the 2013 season, where Leach's Washington State squad edged Kiffin and USC—though not in the shootout one might expect.
"We know each other from being out there (in the Pac-12)," Kiffin said. "Little-known fact that the last time we played, you'd think there would've been a lot of points. Actually, we lost to him 10-7, and if I recall, we threw a pick-six in the game. So we only scored seven and they only scored three on offense, which would probably surprise people. That game didn't help my longevity of my career at USC. I think that was two games before I got fired. That didn't go over real well, losing in The Coliseum to Washington State. It's our turn to win."
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