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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Lane Kiffin Media Day Transcript
8/9/2021 | Football
Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss student-athletes met with the media Monday to kick off fall camp in Oxford. A transcript of Kiffin's press conference can be found below.
Opening Statement…
"So, we've had two practices, good to get the players out there in helmets. Still a lot of work to do, but good to get back out on the field with them. Somewhat of a normal situation. Proud of the vaccination part by our players, staff, and really everyone in contact with our players which is a lot of people, over 240 people. I think that shows a lot about their commitment to safety, but their commitment to each other. Not just protect themselves but to protect bringing something in here. It took a while to get to that point and I think it's really neat and it's a really good message to the state and other people, do what you emphasize. It's great to see. Very competitive practices, two fields going, a lot of guys rotating, one, twos, threes, fours. Guys having a lot of competition opportunity and figure things out early in camp."
On Kinkead Dent and Luke Altmeyer…
"Kinkead and Luke will be in a really big competition for that spot, knowing that John at times could go back there. The focus is John playing receiver, because I don't think he could get really good at that doing both, having never done it before. He's basically their full time for there right now early in camp, seeing how he can develop from there. It's really the only fair thing to do to him. If you go back and forth, it's just too hard at this level to get really good at it."
On the Vaccination Rate…
"Well I think as we got closer for kids to communicate with them and the importance of it, also the rules. Just making sure that they understood that if you're not vaccinated and you're a close contact you could do all this work, weight room, playbook, practice, everything and could show up a close contact and miss a game. If you have the shot and you're a close contact, you're not. It's not just getting it; it's losing time otherwise. It was a lot of work by our staff. Our coaches started it, by our coaches being 100 percent, so we're going to go tell them something to do and our staff isn't 100 percent that doesn't make a lot of sense. I think that helped them too knowing that our coaches had done it, and then it kind of just spread through the building that way."
"That was a lot of work. A lot of different conversations. Sometimes, these are kids. Sometimes it was just not conversations with them. They were okay with it, but it would be a parent or a relative that wasn't. We didn't get to 100 percent until right towards the end. I just think as it got closer too, kids saw the reasons that everyone else was doing it for their team. I don't want to get into a big argument about what's right and wrong, but I think it's irresponsible not to. I know I; be criticized for that but I think it is, being a college a football player. This is different than a normal job. You're coming in, you're near these guys, you're impacting people's ability to play the games on certain weekends and getting shut down. This is not a normal job where you can just stay at home and zoom in on Saturday. A little bit different.
On Otis Reese…
"That was a long year for him. Obviously, we were grateful when it happened. He went through a lot of ups and downs. It would look like it was close and then it wouldn't happen. I was just happy he stayed with it. Did such a great job on service team but stayed in the game plan, knowing that at any time it could happen. I'm sure that was a struggle since it was so late in the season and he still wasn't eligible, so he did a good job getting thrown in there. Now he's had a whole offseason to get comfortable and expect a really big season from him."
On Orlando Umana…
"He's had two good days; we've thrown him in there. Obviously has good experience, has played a lot. Also, there's a learning process of playing center in our system, much different than what he came from with the tempo aspect of it. If he plays slow, our whole offense is in trouble so he's going to have to develop that way and improve on that. If he can do that and play well, I think it allows us to play people at the right spots. For Ben his best spot for the next level is guard and it allows us to do that."
On linebacker play...
"Well, there's a lot of competition there. With Chance coming in, obviously we lost somebody who had a lot of playing experience there, but Chance has experience so that helps out there. Chance has done a good job playing two different positions through two days, so that's good to have. If we're going to be really good on defense, we're going to need a lot of guys to play well because now a days you can't play all the snaps and play really well in my opinion, especially with tempo so we need a lot of depth."
On competition in the slot...
There's a lot of guys there. We actually discussed just today moving one or two outside because there are so many guys there when Plumlee comes into it, so it's very competitive. Plus, we have some of our older guys playing in there some. Still trying to figure out what the best lineup is to start with so, without going into too much detail about who's playing where, it's a very competitive spot and there's a number of guys there."
On freshmen defensive backs...
"I think there's a good mix of veteran players who return with a lot of young players. They obviously all won't play this year, but eventually that will be a really deep group as those guys get older. I think it's a really good mix because we do a lot of multiple things where there's a lot of DBs on the field at the same time so I think there will be a lot of opportunities for those guys to play and play a number of different spots."
On tight ends...
"We try to run our system, runs our plays and then as we figure out our personnel, we start to move our systems based off that, it's why our offense looks different every year. We'll figure that out because we don't have much experience there at all, so we need to see how much those guys can do and that'll help us figure out how we play."
On defensive line...
"Well, Tywone is limited right now in what he can do early in camp, but we recruited him for a reason. Great looking body and skillset of what they are supposed to look like and be able to move."
Both junior college guys being here in the spring was big for them, you know to get work, because we need to play better out there. We need our returners to play better because we did not play well on the defensive line, especially on the interior part and that'll make everyone play better when those guys do."
Opening Statement…
"So, we've had two practices, good to get the players out there in helmets. Still a lot of work to do, but good to get back out on the field with them. Somewhat of a normal situation. Proud of the vaccination part by our players, staff, and really everyone in contact with our players which is a lot of people, over 240 people. I think that shows a lot about their commitment to safety, but their commitment to each other. Not just protect themselves but to protect bringing something in here. It took a while to get to that point and I think it's really neat and it's a really good message to the state and other people, do what you emphasize. It's great to see. Very competitive practices, two fields going, a lot of guys rotating, one, twos, threes, fours. Guys having a lot of competition opportunity and figure things out early in camp."
On Kinkead Dent and Luke Altmeyer…
"Kinkead and Luke will be in a really big competition for that spot, knowing that John at times could go back there. The focus is John playing receiver, because I don't think he could get really good at that doing both, having never done it before. He's basically their full time for there right now early in camp, seeing how he can develop from there. It's really the only fair thing to do to him. If you go back and forth, it's just too hard at this level to get really good at it."
On the Vaccination Rate…
"Well I think as we got closer for kids to communicate with them and the importance of it, also the rules. Just making sure that they understood that if you're not vaccinated and you're a close contact you could do all this work, weight room, playbook, practice, everything and could show up a close contact and miss a game. If you have the shot and you're a close contact, you're not. It's not just getting it; it's losing time otherwise. It was a lot of work by our staff. Our coaches started it, by our coaches being 100 percent, so we're going to go tell them something to do and our staff isn't 100 percent that doesn't make a lot of sense. I think that helped them too knowing that our coaches had done it, and then it kind of just spread through the building that way."
"That was a lot of work. A lot of different conversations. Sometimes, these are kids. Sometimes it was just not conversations with them. They were okay with it, but it would be a parent or a relative that wasn't. We didn't get to 100 percent until right towards the end. I just think as it got closer too, kids saw the reasons that everyone else was doing it for their team. I don't want to get into a big argument about what's right and wrong, but I think it's irresponsible not to. I know I; be criticized for that but I think it is, being a college a football player. This is different than a normal job. You're coming in, you're near these guys, you're impacting people's ability to play the games on certain weekends and getting shut down. This is not a normal job where you can just stay at home and zoom in on Saturday. A little bit different.
On Otis Reese…
"That was a long year for him. Obviously, we were grateful when it happened. He went through a lot of ups and downs. It would look like it was close and then it wouldn't happen. I was just happy he stayed with it. Did such a great job on service team but stayed in the game plan, knowing that at any time it could happen. I'm sure that was a struggle since it was so late in the season and he still wasn't eligible, so he did a good job getting thrown in there. Now he's had a whole offseason to get comfortable and expect a really big season from him."
On Orlando Umana…
"He's had two good days; we've thrown him in there. Obviously has good experience, has played a lot. Also, there's a learning process of playing center in our system, much different than what he came from with the tempo aspect of it. If he plays slow, our whole offense is in trouble so he's going to have to develop that way and improve on that. If he can do that and play well, I think it allows us to play people at the right spots. For Ben his best spot for the next level is guard and it allows us to do that."
On linebacker play...
"Well, there's a lot of competition there. With Chance coming in, obviously we lost somebody who had a lot of playing experience there, but Chance has experience so that helps out there. Chance has done a good job playing two different positions through two days, so that's good to have. If we're going to be really good on defense, we're going to need a lot of guys to play well because now a days you can't play all the snaps and play really well in my opinion, especially with tempo so we need a lot of depth."
On competition in the slot...
There's a lot of guys there. We actually discussed just today moving one or two outside because there are so many guys there when Plumlee comes into it, so it's very competitive. Plus, we have some of our older guys playing in there some. Still trying to figure out what the best lineup is to start with so, without going into too much detail about who's playing where, it's a very competitive spot and there's a number of guys there."
On freshmen defensive backs...
"I think there's a good mix of veteran players who return with a lot of young players. They obviously all won't play this year, but eventually that will be a really deep group as those guys get older. I think it's a really good mix because we do a lot of multiple things where there's a lot of DBs on the field at the same time so I think there will be a lot of opportunities for those guys to play and play a number of different spots."
On tight ends...
"We try to run our system, runs our plays and then as we figure out our personnel, we start to move our systems based off that, it's why our offense looks different every year. We'll figure that out because we don't have much experience there at all, so we need to see how much those guys can do and that'll help us figure out how we play."
On defensive line...
"Well, Tywone is limited right now in what he can do early in camp, but we recruited him for a reason. Great looking body and skillset of what they are supposed to look like and be able to move."
Both junior college guys being here in the spring was big for them, you know to get work, because we need to play better out there. We need our returners to play better because we did not play well on the defensive line, especially on the interior part and that'll make everyone play better when those guys do."
Players Mentioned
PRESSER | Wydett Williams Jr. - Week 4 vs. Tulane (09-16-25)
Tuesday, September 16
PRESSER | Diego Pounds - Week 4 vs. Tulane (09-16-25)
Tuesday, September 16
PRESSER | Dae'Quan Wright - Week 4 vs Tulane (09-16-25)
Tuesday, September 16
PRESSER | Lane Kiffin - Week 4 vs. Tulane (09-15-25)
Monday, September 15