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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Lane Kiffin Signing Day Transcript
2/1/2023 | Football
Opening Statement:
"You've guys have heard me say it before, these signing days are not what they used to be. We've already had a press conference on the last December one. It certainly seems that everyone signs early now-a-days. Not a lot of action today. Comparable, it will be interesting to see the percentages that come out. It feels like 90-percent sign early now. We signed a few kids today to add to the class. It's kind of strange even looking at numbers because you've got the first class, and then you have this class, and then you have transfer portal guys that everybody follows closely, and potentially transfer guys that haven't started school, so they may not be on our list even though we have their papers. It's just kind of some strange rules around that. I think this one says 28 or 29 guys on it. I think when it's all said and done, including the next window that opens up, that will be well over 30 players and signees.
"That's the world we live in now. Your rosters are changing. We have a whole new set of issues to deal with as head coach and coaching staffs. Your roster turns over so much with all these guys leaving and coming in. It does make it challenging but everyone has the same challenges as far as culture and creating that just because you have so much movement now.
"We did add some guys today that add to the previous 12 high school and kids that were signed, so we are excited about that. This is the first time having the majority of the portal guys able to talk about that. We added a lot of spots there. We had some leave like everywhere else around the country. I still think, much like the year before, we had much more significant players come in than go out through the portal. I think that's really the challenge now is everyone looks at, "What portal guys did you get?" And really it's the balance of that you're always going to lose your guys that are done with their eligibility or they're going to the NFL Draft. Now it's really like the NFL where it's turned into a professional sport as you look into free agency, or losing free agency, or what did you get in return. You are trying to win that battle because you are in a day now where no one is going to keep all their players. It's just too easy for kids to leave when they don't like something. I think eventually you'll see a lot of things cleaned up around this. These are a lot of challenges that we talked about when NIL and transfer portal came out almost at the same time. Now here we are however many years later with both of them combined. We are a professional sport without really any system in place to handle these kids being treated as professionals as far as them being paid, which is awesome. I've always said, though, that we just don't have a system in place around it with proper windows and contracts with them being employees. You've got to figure out if you sign high school kids or portal, what's the balance there? Because it's great to sign high school kids but what are the percentages that you're going to keep those kids now because if you look around the country - they don't play good so they leave to go play somewhere. If they play good, they go somewhere because they get bought out to go make more money somewhere. There's a ton of challenges there and hopefully, eventually, someone fixes the system and uses some type of pro-model that's all over the place in every other professional sport but this one."
On deciding what high school kids to take:
"I think it's just gotten really complicated. It might be easier sometimes if you just don't look at analytics and try to figure it all out. If you just say, "Hey, that guy is a good player. We'll take him." I think now, at least in my opinion, you have to look at everything. Where's the guy from? What's his personality? Is he the type that is more apt to transfer? You've got to weigh in all these things that come with it. You're just in a strange time because eventually when that guy plays good, you have to recruit him to stay. When a window closes and we don't lose significant players in a window, it's like we're celebrating keeping our own players that weren't even in the portal. We're just keeping them from going other places because it is a constant battle. I know other coaches have the same problem because we obviously talk. When you have a great player like Quinshon [Judkins], he's one of the most recruited players in the country over the last few months. That's very challenging and exciting which sounds crazy when a window closes that he's still here. You've seen other very significant players around the country move. It's just unfortunate when you talk to these coaches. The kids come to them saying, "Hey, I'm going to the portal." Well what are your plans? "Well, I already know where I'm going and I know how much money I'm making." The deals are already done. That really hasn't been the case for us but I know that it's been written about some issues with significant players around the country being bought away. That just needs to be somehow fixed and create a real free-agency."
On having a strategy with recruiting:
"I think until someone takes a hold and fixes it, you're going to have these constant issues. As you guys know, I don't give coach speaks so I come up here and a lot of people appreciate that because I get a lot of messages from people, fans and especially the media, that appreciate it saying, "We know when your press conferences come on, you're going to tell us what's really going on out there." Like I've said before, you've got free agency windows and you have pay-for-play. I don't think it's any secret on what the NIL was intended to be and, if you had awareness, you would know it was never going to happen that way. The way they set it up is pay-for-play. How much money you give kids to go places, and if I transfer and go there, how much are you going to get versus how much if I stay? It's very challenging. It just feels like you're in the middle of recruiting like you always were, and then you're in the middle of recruiting your own kids. Out there you think it's recruiting your kids once they go in the portal. No it's not. You're recruiting your kids not to go in the portal because they're being recruited., especially the significant, young players. The value of a young player that you can come take, like Quinshon, is more valuable than the great high school player because he can't leave again. Now they're actually recruiting even more and there's significant money being offered to someone like Quinshon because now you have him for the next two years no matter what, really. They can't leave you. It's very complicated."
On the decision to bring in two QB transfers:
"I'm very excited about the quarterback room. I was very concerned about it just from a numbers standpoint, and you guys can figure that one out. My job is to put together the best roster every year. We had a chance to bring these two guys in, and I think Jaxson did a lot of great things last year. I know when you look at Jaxson from the beginning of when he played to the end of when he played, he dramatically improved and for a young quarterback we're all very excited about him continuing to do that. But we were able to add two guys, one more of a veteran if you look at the NFL model of a veteran and then also a young one that's more of a draft pick. The quarterback room is dramatically in a much better position than it was a year ago, and that's really our goal for our whole roster and every position in terms of continuing to improve what goes out and what comes in. That'll be very exciting to see those guys develop while also working with the young one too."
On if he has an idea of how many more guys he's looking to bring in at the next portal window:
"I don't know. There's really no way to map out a plan anymore of exactly what you are going to do because there's just too many variables. You've got multiple windows of free agency, now the SEC to SEC window is closed but everything else isn't. You can easily say here's what we have, so here's what we need, but then you're going to lose some of your own again. So you don't really know that either. Like I said, you're going to have surprises since it's not just going to be what it used to be. You have your disgruntled players that weren't playing very much but were a highly recruited player, so we all know that they're going to go transfer. Then they started saying this from the beginning, but this is also going to go the other way and you're going to have really good players playing well and actually be happy where they're at, but they're going to get offered to go make more money. What they have now is the chance to opt into free agency, which why would anybody not do that to see what's out there, to make more money. That's what happens now, and a lot of people get to the parents and not just kids so you're trying to protect your own kids and talk to them about why they should stay but then all of a sudden these other schools get to a parent. This is a constant battle and I don't really know how to do the numbers part of it and say okay, after spring this is what we need. I think the analytics are starting to show that you're just going to lose more."
On how hard it is to get to 85 players with those portal complications:
"I think before you always had the challenge of figuring out your numbers because you didn't know early-on going into the year who was going to go into the NFL Draft. Now you have who's going to the draft that you may lose, which is always a good problem to have because it means they played really well, but now you have this whole other thing that's the same thing. Your players that aren't playing as much as they'd like want to leave, but then your good players may want to leave because of money especially if a parent gets involved. There's been documented cases of that nationally where one of the best players on a very elite team all of a sudden goes into the portal out of nowhere and he is now going to another already prominent program. There is no professional sport that has a setup like this because it just wouldn't work. That's why they have the setups that they have and they have windows and they have contracts. Players can chose to sign a one-year, two-year, three-year, four-year contract, and that's just not what any of these are now."
On if legally binding contracts are the only solution to fixing the issues involved with the portal:
"I don't get into a lot of that because I can't control that and no one's going to listen to coaches on that sort of stuff. I don't study the subject enough to know the other issues that come up in regards to whether or not they should be employees. They do need contracts, because that's what they're doing. They already have contracts, but we don't really want to say that they do, but they do. They need them, they need to have years on them so that they decide and can say here's what I'm doing. Right now it's crazy. You have kids go to a place and say hey coach, I was really thinking about switching to you, but instead I'm just going to stay here for a year and try it out and if I don't really like it I'll come to you guys a year from now. That's not good. That's not good for college sports and that's not good for a kid. Now kids go into this and as soon as something doesn't go my way, I leave. That's not how you want kids going into things. That is an issue and it's going to be a major issue, and I think you saw that with a national program this year where it started to happen in the middle of the season once things weren't going well. They used to say I'm going to take my ball and go home, now it's I'm going to take my money and go to another place and get more. I'm not mad at the kids, they're just maximizing this flawed system, so I commend them."
On bringing in Coach Golding into the program:
"It's just really awesome. When we talk about signing day we talk about landing five stars, and he's about as five star as you can get. This also has nothing to do with beating out Alabama either, he's just a great coach and everyone that's worked with him has always said from the beginning that he was a brilliant, up-and-coming guy. Coach Saban even talked about him as one of the best interviews he's ever seen in the first interview when he had interviewed him. It's just a very unusual situation where someone at the very top of their game gets to come here as a coordinator. There were some family things that helped us there with his wife's family being from here, so that was great. It was kind of like with recruiting how sometimes you just get the little advantages. I'm really excited for them to come and for he and his family to be here and to really help us not just on defense schematically, but he's been a phenomenal recruiter too that we've had to go against in the past."
On the traits he looks for in young offensive linemen when recruiting them to sign:
"It's all different when it comes to centers, guards, tackles and what we're looking for. We really like athletic guys that can play multiple positions, which there is some of that in this year's class. It's always nice to be able to move them around especially when we're still figuring out who's all coming and going for transfers. The more positions a player can play upfront, the more value they can bring up there just because you'll be thin at times."
"You've guys have heard me say it before, these signing days are not what they used to be. We've already had a press conference on the last December one. It certainly seems that everyone signs early now-a-days. Not a lot of action today. Comparable, it will be interesting to see the percentages that come out. It feels like 90-percent sign early now. We signed a few kids today to add to the class. It's kind of strange even looking at numbers because you've got the first class, and then you have this class, and then you have transfer portal guys that everybody follows closely, and potentially transfer guys that haven't started school, so they may not be on our list even though we have their papers. It's just kind of some strange rules around that. I think this one says 28 or 29 guys on it. I think when it's all said and done, including the next window that opens up, that will be well over 30 players and signees.
"That's the world we live in now. Your rosters are changing. We have a whole new set of issues to deal with as head coach and coaching staffs. Your roster turns over so much with all these guys leaving and coming in. It does make it challenging but everyone has the same challenges as far as culture and creating that just because you have so much movement now.
"We did add some guys today that add to the previous 12 high school and kids that were signed, so we are excited about that. This is the first time having the majority of the portal guys able to talk about that. We added a lot of spots there. We had some leave like everywhere else around the country. I still think, much like the year before, we had much more significant players come in than go out through the portal. I think that's really the challenge now is everyone looks at, "What portal guys did you get?" And really it's the balance of that you're always going to lose your guys that are done with their eligibility or they're going to the NFL Draft. Now it's really like the NFL where it's turned into a professional sport as you look into free agency, or losing free agency, or what did you get in return. You are trying to win that battle because you are in a day now where no one is going to keep all their players. It's just too easy for kids to leave when they don't like something. I think eventually you'll see a lot of things cleaned up around this. These are a lot of challenges that we talked about when NIL and transfer portal came out almost at the same time. Now here we are however many years later with both of them combined. We are a professional sport without really any system in place to handle these kids being treated as professionals as far as them being paid, which is awesome. I've always said, though, that we just don't have a system in place around it with proper windows and contracts with them being employees. You've got to figure out if you sign high school kids or portal, what's the balance there? Because it's great to sign high school kids but what are the percentages that you're going to keep those kids now because if you look around the country - they don't play good so they leave to go play somewhere. If they play good, they go somewhere because they get bought out to go make more money somewhere. There's a ton of challenges there and hopefully, eventually, someone fixes the system and uses some type of pro-model that's all over the place in every other professional sport but this one."
On deciding what high school kids to take:
"I think it's just gotten really complicated. It might be easier sometimes if you just don't look at analytics and try to figure it all out. If you just say, "Hey, that guy is a good player. We'll take him." I think now, at least in my opinion, you have to look at everything. Where's the guy from? What's his personality? Is he the type that is more apt to transfer? You've got to weigh in all these things that come with it. You're just in a strange time because eventually when that guy plays good, you have to recruit him to stay. When a window closes and we don't lose significant players in a window, it's like we're celebrating keeping our own players that weren't even in the portal. We're just keeping them from going other places because it is a constant battle. I know other coaches have the same problem because we obviously talk. When you have a great player like Quinshon [Judkins], he's one of the most recruited players in the country over the last few months. That's very challenging and exciting which sounds crazy when a window closes that he's still here. You've seen other very significant players around the country move. It's just unfortunate when you talk to these coaches. The kids come to them saying, "Hey, I'm going to the portal." Well what are your plans? "Well, I already know where I'm going and I know how much money I'm making." The deals are already done. That really hasn't been the case for us but I know that it's been written about some issues with significant players around the country being bought away. That just needs to be somehow fixed and create a real free-agency."
On having a strategy with recruiting:
"I think until someone takes a hold and fixes it, you're going to have these constant issues. As you guys know, I don't give coach speaks so I come up here and a lot of people appreciate that because I get a lot of messages from people, fans and especially the media, that appreciate it saying, "We know when your press conferences come on, you're going to tell us what's really going on out there." Like I've said before, you've got free agency windows and you have pay-for-play. I don't think it's any secret on what the NIL was intended to be and, if you had awareness, you would know it was never going to happen that way. The way they set it up is pay-for-play. How much money you give kids to go places, and if I transfer and go there, how much are you going to get versus how much if I stay? It's very challenging. It just feels like you're in the middle of recruiting like you always were, and then you're in the middle of recruiting your own kids. Out there you think it's recruiting your kids once they go in the portal. No it's not. You're recruiting your kids not to go in the portal because they're being recruited., especially the significant, young players. The value of a young player that you can come take, like Quinshon, is more valuable than the great high school player because he can't leave again. Now they're actually recruiting even more and there's significant money being offered to someone like Quinshon because now you have him for the next two years no matter what, really. They can't leave you. It's very complicated."
On the decision to bring in two QB transfers:
"I'm very excited about the quarterback room. I was very concerned about it just from a numbers standpoint, and you guys can figure that one out. My job is to put together the best roster every year. We had a chance to bring these two guys in, and I think Jaxson did a lot of great things last year. I know when you look at Jaxson from the beginning of when he played to the end of when he played, he dramatically improved and for a young quarterback we're all very excited about him continuing to do that. But we were able to add two guys, one more of a veteran if you look at the NFL model of a veteran and then also a young one that's more of a draft pick. The quarterback room is dramatically in a much better position than it was a year ago, and that's really our goal for our whole roster and every position in terms of continuing to improve what goes out and what comes in. That'll be very exciting to see those guys develop while also working with the young one too."
On if he has an idea of how many more guys he's looking to bring in at the next portal window:
"I don't know. There's really no way to map out a plan anymore of exactly what you are going to do because there's just too many variables. You've got multiple windows of free agency, now the SEC to SEC window is closed but everything else isn't. You can easily say here's what we have, so here's what we need, but then you're going to lose some of your own again. So you don't really know that either. Like I said, you're going to have surprises since it's not just going to be what it used to be. You have your disgruntled players that weren't playing very much but were a highly recruited player, so we all know that they're going to go transfer. Then they started saying this from the beginning, but this is also going to go the other way and you're going to have really good players playing well and actually be happy where they're at, but they're going to get offered to go make more money. What they have now is the chance to opt into free agency, which why would anybody not do that to see what's out there, to make more money. That's what happens now, and a lot of people get to the parents and not just kids so you're trying to protect your own kids and talk to them about why they should stay but then all of a sudden these other schools get to a parent. This is a constant battle and I don't really know how to do the numbers part of it and say okay, after spring this is what we need. I think the analytics are starting to show that you're just going to lose more."
On how hard it is to get to 85 players with those portal complications:
"I think before you always had the challenge of figuring out your numbers because you didn't know early-on going into the year who was going to go into the NFL Draft. Now you have who's going to the draft that you may lose, which is always a good problem to have because it means they played really well, but now you have this whole other thing that's the same thing. Your players that aren't playing as much as they'd like want to leave, but then your good players may want to leave because of money especially if a parent gets involved. There's been documented cases of that nationally where one of the best players on a very elite team all of a sudden goes into the portal out of nowhere and he is now going to another already prominent program. There is no professional sport that has a setup like this because it just wouldn't work. That's why they have the setups that they have and they have windows and they have contracts. Players can chose to sign a one-year, two-year, three-year, four-year contract, and that's just not what any of these are now."
On if legally binding contracts are the only solution to fixing the issues involved with the portal:
"I don't get into a lot of that because I can't control that and no one's going to listen to coaches on that sort of stuff. I don't study the subject enough to know the other issues that come up in regards to whether or not they should be employees. They do need contracts, because that's what they're doing. They already have contracts, but we don't really want to say that they do, but they do. They need them, they need to have years on them so that they decide and can say here's what I'm doing. Right now it's crazy. You have kids go to a place and say hey coach, I was really thinking about switching to you, but instead I'm just going to stay here for a year and try it out and if I don't really like it I'll come to you guys a year from now. That's not good. That's not good for college sports and that's not good for a kid. Now kids go into this and as soon as something doesn't go my way, I leave. That's not how you want kids going into things. That is an issue and it's going to be a major issue, and I think you saw that with a national program this year where it started to happen in the middle of the season once things weren't going well. They used to say I'm going to take my ball and go home, now it's I'm going to take my money and go to another place and get more. I'm not mad at the kids, they're just maximizing this flawed system, so I commend them."
On bringing in Coach Golding into the program:
"It's just really awesome. When we talk about signing day we talk about landing five stars, and he's about as five star as you can get. This also has nothing to do with beating out Alabama either, he's just a great coach and everyone that's worked with him has always said from the beginning that he was a brilliant, up-and-coming guy. Coach Saban even talked about him as one of the best interviews he's ever seen in the first interview when he had interviewed him. It's just a very unusual situation where someone at the very top of their game gets to come here as a coordinator. There were some family things that helped us there with his wife's family being from here, so that was great. It was kind of like with recruiting how sometimes you just get the little advantages. I'm really excited for them to come and for he and his family to be here and to really help us not just on defense schematically, but he's been a phenomenal recruiter too that we've had to go against in the past."
On the traits he looks for in young offensive linemen when recruiting them to sign:
"It's all different when it comes to centers, guards, tackles and what we're looking for. We really like athletic guys that can play multiple positions, which there is some of that in this year's class. It's always nice to be able to move them around especially when we're still figuring out who's all coming and going for transfers. The more positions a player can play upfront, the more value they can bring up there just because you'll be thin at times."
PRESSER | Sharif Denson (04-22-26)
Wednesday, April 22
PRESSER | Horatio Fields (04-22-26)
Wednesday, April 22
PRESSER | Pete Golding (04-21-26)
Tuesday, April 21
PRESSER | Johntay Cook II (04-21-26)
Tuesday, April 21