Lane Kiffin Details Reason For Ole Miss Rebels' Offensive Struggles in Egg Bowl Win

The Ole Miss Rebels missed some opportunities on Thursday night, but they were also purposefully conservative in the rivalry win.

The Golden Egg Trophy is back in Oxford, and even though the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels did not play a pristine game on Thanksgiving night, head coach Lane Kiffin is happy with the rivalry win over Mississippi State.

Ole Miss' offense was not firing on all cylinders on Thursday, only putting up three points in the first half and finishing the game with a 17-7 win, but according to Kiffin, some of that was by design.

"Really proud of our players," Kiffin said postgame. "I thought our guys played great defense basically the whole night and played really well in the second half running the ball. We put ourselves in a lot of poor positions, but we were playing to our defense at times and being conservative because we thought that was a good matchup in the game."

Nov 23, 2023; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin reacts during the second half against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports / © Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

Kiffin did admit, however, that there were some things left to be desired on offense, but he was happy to return the rivalry trophy back to Oxford, and he also made mention of missing his friend and former State head coach Mike Leach who passed away last year.

"We weren't perfect by any means," Kiffin said. "We made it really hard there for a couple plays that could have made it really easy. Excited to get the trophy back. That was really painful last year to lose that. Thought maybe that if you're ever going to lose that, once we learned later on it was Coach Leach's last game, maybe that was meant to be.

"I miss him. Missed him today, and will never forget him. But I'm glad obviously we got it back to us, and we hope to keep it for a while."

Ole Miss Reaches 10 Wins With Egg Bowl Victory vs. Mississippi State

Still, the Rebels now are 3-1 in Egg Bowl meetings since Kiffin took the head coaching job at Ole Miss, and they have also reached 10 regular season wins for just the second time in program history, both of which have come under Kiffin.

After the win, Ole Miss leads the all-time series against Mississippi State 65-46-6, and it now awaits its bowl game destination.