Lane Kiffin’s Thoughts: Ole Miss Football Ready to Work Through Spring Camp

Kiffin and Co. are working through a critical offseason in Oxford, looking to develop new-look roster.

Billy Kuhl | Mar 20, 2025

Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin is interviewed after the game while holding the Ash Verlander Champions Trophy of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. Ole Miss defeated Duke 52-20. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In this story:

Ole Miss Rebels

Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels opened Spring Camp on Tuesday morning with the program debuting a new-look roster in Oxford.

Following Day 1 of practice, Kiffin took the podium to voice his thoughts on the offseason and what's next for the program.

Kiffin started the press conference with a quick shoutout to acknowledge school history after giving to the Rebels men's and women's basketball programs for both making the NCAA Tournament in the same year for the first time in school history.

Once it got down to business, Kiffin provided his initial insight Day 1 of spring ball.

"It was good to be out there and good to get some work in," Kiffin said. "We've got a lot of challenges ahead of us, a lot of new starters and continuing to figure out a roster"

Kiffin was questioned about the portal and some of the most important things that he sees to make guys mesh quickly and a common theme that he set down was the ability to adapt to the culture that he has built in the program.

"I think we just try to go into it a lot right away of getting them to learn as much as possible from a schematic standpoint," Kiffin said. "But getting them to spend a lot of time with each other and a lot of team activities, a lot of speakers, a lot of culture talk [is important]."

A major part of that Kiffin discussed was that, especially in this new era of the transfer portal, kids are coming from all over and different school.

Therefore, they already have a culture burned into their mind that may not match what Ole Miss is looking for. Furthermore, they want to get all these guys on the same page and buy into this program.

"There’s so many new pieces that already think a certain way because they’re from different schools coming in," Kiffin said. "You know, it’s not like they’re just all high school kids coming in. So, I think every year now more than ever is brand new approach as if we haven’t had the team before."

Kiffin proceeded to give a couple of overviews about the team, some specifically include Austin Simmons, and his growth as well as his team building, the secondary, the new defensive line and Kewan Lacy.

However, a group that Kiffin seemed very high on was the tight end room and in particular returning member Dae'Quon Wright and transfer piece Luke Hasz.

"Thats a really good combination there of two guys that both played extremely well in this conference" Kiffin said.

"Dae'Quon had a great year last year and really came on, especially when he was healthy late in the year and Luke has done a really good job for two years over there so it was good to add him"

Lane also gave some insight about other players making an impact, such as Cayden Lee.

"I think Cayden Lee's done a really good job. Again, you have some older players that have come in from new and other places so I've noticed him do a really good job," Kiffin added.

While the season is still far away, Spring Camp is a good way to get the year the started and learn what the new squad has to offer, as well as gain information for what lies ahead in Oxford.