Everything Lane Kiffin Said after No. 15 Ole Miss' 24-10 Loss to No. 13 Alabama

Former Alabama assistant and Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was candid in his thoughts after facing Alabama on the road.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After a crushing defeat, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin gave his thoughts after Saturday's tough loss to Nick Saban and No. 13 Alabama. 

Opening Statement:

Alright, so a lot of credit to Alabama. Obviously they battled through a lot this week and a lot of people questioning them. I think they came out and played really physical, did a great job on defense, especially in the secondary. We really struggled on third down, which is a big part of the game. I thought we did some good things on defense at times but the whole thing was to not let this quarterback throw it over our head and make him work it down the field. He ended up going over our head twice for two big plays so really disappointed in the result. We came here to win and didn't do that today. Wish we would have hit that last pass there to get to one score and three timeouts and see what would have happened there. Disappointing, especially when you don't get these guys again at least for a year. So, more missed opportunities.

Inability to Run the Football

Yeah these guys are unfortunately hard to run ball on. Some of those things in the first half, the run carries were very low handoffs, which was not totally by design. You're running RPOs, they played a lot of extra guy in the front, which requires him to throw the ball. Those numbers got out of whack there, not on purpose. You ain't just going to turn and hand the ball off over time and beat them in my opinion. You've got to be able to hit some shots and move the ball around and make the plays while they're there because they're not going to give you a ton of them. 

Alabama Got The Run Going In Second Half

I just think you can only - these guys got great players and you can only keep them down so long. That's why you can't - you've got to steal scores when you have a chance. You've got to get the three at the end of the first half. Then we come out in the third quarter and we take our shot over their head and they pick it. They took their shot, almost the same play for a huge play. You get yourself all of the sudden in trouble. That's why they're hard to beat, especially here.

Who Do You Think Was Calling Plays For Alabama

I don't know, but they did a good job. So I commend them. Maybe Coach took over. They did a really good job on third down. I mean it wasn't exotic. They played man-to-man and did a good job against us. I thought Malachi played really well and Kool-Aid. Number Three, tried to go after him like last year and the guy did a really good job. 

Difference in Second Quarter Defense and Third Quarter Defense

I think you've got to make plays on offense when you come in here. You can't just keep putting it on your defense. Eventually a lot of times you end up breaking. That's a really big offensive line, powerful running back. The quarterback he's as good a runner as there is in the country at that position. So that's really challenging when we put ourselves in that spot. We kind of had them one-dimensional in the first half. I think they were one-yard per carry at halftime. And then we started to break down, wear down. 

Suntarine Perkins Game

I thought Perkins made a lot of plays today. I was hoping he would kind of - kind of like the LSU guy when we played LSU last year, he hadn't started yet, the freshman and all of the sudden they played him against us and the guy looked like the best player in the conference. We were hoping he could give us that spark because he's one of the few players we have that can catch this guy. So I thought you could see the impact right away that he made and Tennison made in trying to spy this quarterback. 

Problems on Third Down

Oh we've got to coach better, come up with better things. These guys always for years and years being good on third down. You don't come up with things and winning man-to-man and they've got good rushers, especially at home. That kind of fed into that and a lot of the third downs were longer situations, which certainly doesn't help in this place.

Big Game Next Week - How To Reset

I'm not there yet. I mean, this was really discouraging to come in here. I really thought this was our shot to beat these guys. Just thought there were some things there we could do and we didn't get them done today. We'll worry about next week I guess later today.

How Does Nick Saban Motivate His Team In These Situations

I didn't like playing them after they played poor. He's the best in the world at that. You would think that he would act one way when they don't play - I'm sure he would say, he said they didn't play well last week down in South Florida. He does a great job of getting them back and using what everybody says. All you guys saying the dynasty's over and they ain't any good anymore and he uses that all week and the guys come out playing really well, especially usually on defense and they did that today.

Field Goal Miss Lost Momentum

I think it did a little bit, but what, you go to a four-point game, there'd be some momentum. I don't think that was really big but I felt like our locker room was good at halftime. I felt like we'd be in this type of game, a one-point game. I think the shift, really there was two plays there. We moved the ball past midfield. We said we were going to play aggressive, we said we weren't going to - I've been in this place and lost 12-10 with four field goals and said I wasn't going to do that again. So we took a shot and their guy made a really good play and they basically on the next series took a shot exactly the same over our safety's head so I think that's really where it turned. And I still think we're in a game I mean, Jaxson played his heart out, but he'll be the first to tell you Jordan's wide open for the touchdown there with all three timeouts and I think it would have gotten really interesting. 

Anything Alabama Did to Surprise You

Uh, not really. I say this every year, they're bigger than I remember every time. You can't play the game in third and long against them at home, here. So we put ourselves in that position too much.

How Big Is Athleticism Gulf

I don't know. We've got to coach better. Come up with plays. We tried some things today. If you're watching, there's some things in there that kind of unusual plays. Threw it all out there so.. This was our shot to take these guys down and we didn't do it.

Confidence Going Into Halftime

Had a lot. We've been a really good second half team. 100-23, I think this year. Obviously a different quality of opponent today but I felt good about that. Then the play counts got off balance. It got off balance because we weren't winning on third down. So that kind of got us off balance there.

This story will be updated.