Lane Kiffin Modeled Recruiting Strategy Around Nick Saban Philosophy

The Rebels brought in one of the top transfer portal classes in the country because Kiffin wants to match the physicality of teams like Alabama and Georgia.

Lane Kiffin at 2024 SEC Media Days / SEC

Lane Kiffin brought in one of the top transfer portal classes in all of college football this offseason with names like former Texas A&M 5-star Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen, Antwane Wells Jr. and former Alabama defensive back Trey Amos.

Ole Miss has steadily been on the climb under Kiffin the last few seasons, but still hasn't made it to Atlanta for an SEC championship game, struggling to win against the top teams in the SEC. Last season, the Rebels' only losses were to Georgia and Alabama. Kiffin has not beaten either program in his time at Ole Miss.

Kiffin revealed on Monday at SEC Media Days that a big part of his portal strategy was so that Ole Miss could compete with and have rosters simililarly built to Alabama and Georgia.

"We got to coach better, but we as coaches got to recruit better in our thinking and evaluations and so forth," Kiffin said Monday. "One of the big things was I just thought should happen in a few games over our time here, really with Alabama and Georgia, was there was a length and size issue. 

"You know, both Kirby [Smart] and Coach [Nick] Saban, you learn from Coach Saban there is an impact profile they recruit to of size. That's not easy to do everywhere. Everybody would love to have every player 6'5". I do think we addressed that."

Kiffin knows that it will still come down to coaching and execution but now feels like his squad will look more like Alabama or Georgia from a size and length perspective from the moment they step off the bus. Ole Miss has had talented players and rosters under Kiffin, but with the help of this portal class and high school recruits, the Rebels will now match up with some of the top teams in the SEC physically.

Because of Ole Miss' strong portal class along with their returning starters, like quarterback Jaxson Dart, the Rebels are getting a lot of preseason hype and expected to be in contention for the College Football Playoff. Kiffin said he has talked to Saban about handling the "rat poison" or preseason expectations.

"As he said, this is a rat poison situation here to have all this attention on our players, and it means nothing because it's all about the work that they put in, the process they do daily, they're working extremely hard this summer, and then we're going to have a lot of work to do in training camp," Kiffin said.

With the elimination of divisions in the SEC, Alabama and Ole Miss will not meet in the regular season, but the Rebels do host Georgia on Nov. 9.