Lane Kiffin Says Ole Miss ‘Didn’t Finish’ Against Alabama, Team Is ‘0-1’

The Rebels’ coach was visibly frustrated after his team’s close home loss to Alabama.

No. 11 Ole Miss fell to No. 9 Alabama 30–24 at home in Oxford on Saturday afternoon, with Rebels’ coach Lane Kiffin falling short once again to his former boss, Nick Saban.

The Rebels had their chances to win this game on Saturday, leading in the second half and entering the fourth quarter tied. However, two fourth quarter field goals by Crimson Tide kicker Will Reichard proved to be enough to push Alabama over the top on the road.

A visibly frustrated Kiffin lamented the missed opportunity to beat Alabama at home on Saturday and expressed his thoughts vividly in the postgame press conference. 

“I don’t really give a s— about how many yards we had or how close the game was. We didn’t win the game,” Kiffin began. “Two years ago we walked off this field and I said we didn’t come here to cover spreads. We didn’t come here to play what was at the time the number one team in the country close. So all these things about you did this…you had a freshman running back that did that…it doesn’t matter, we didn’t win the game. So you know, maybe at some other places that’s good or it’s been good here in the past, but it ain’t good enough. We came here to win, to beat Alabama, we didn’t do it, so we’re 0–1 this week.”

Saturday marked just the second loss of the season for Ole Miss, who has a road game against Arkansas next Saturday before finishing up the regular season at home against Mississippi State on Thanksgiving Day. As for Alabama, the Crimson Tide avoided a disastrous third loss to keep their hopes of playing in a New Year’s Six game on track. It will be a disappointing season by Alabama standards, but Saturday’s victory stopped the bleeding following a tough road loss to LSU last Saturday in Death Valley.

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