Lane Kiffin Holds First Spring Press Conference, Responds to Jimbo Fisher NIL Comments

Ole Miss opened spring practice on Tuesday, and Kiffin held his first press conference after the workouts.

Ole Miss began spring practice on Tuesday with a plethora of new faces within the program, both on the coaching staff and in uniform.

The Rebels are coming off one of the best seasons in program history, winning 10 regular season games and earning a berth in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin addressed the media following practice on Tuesday.

"Good to be back," Kiffin said. "There are a lot of new guys. Spring usually is not this way, but with the portal, it's pretty exciting to go out there and look at all the guys."

One of Kiffin's talking points was once again addressing NIL. Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher referred to Kiffin as a "clown" around national signing day for some of his NIL comments, but Kiffin stuck to his guns on Tuesday.

"I've obviously said a lot about NIL," Kiffin said. "I love that the players are getting paid, and I just say how it is. I guess I got called a clown before, but NIL has a lot to do with where players go. To not think that is crazy.

"It'd be like, 'The contracts had nothing to do with why the players came here. They just want to play for me.' Adults choose jobs a lot of times for money, so why would a kid not?"

Carleigh Holt-The Grove Report

Lane Kiffin

Lane Kiffin

Lane Kiffin

The Rebels brought in a large amount of players from the transfer portal over the offseason, including running backs Zach Evans and Ulysses Bentley.

"We lost our top three running backs from a year ago, so that was a very important addition," Kiffin said. "To be able to add guys and them be here today is kind of crazy. To have a guy at another program a few days ago and now he's here, it's truly like free agency."

Kiffin also secured two transfers from USC in Jaxson Dart and Michael Trigg. Dart is expected to compete for the starting quarterback position this spring alongside names like Luke Altmyer and Kinkead Dent. 

"All three guys will have a chance," Kiffin said. "We've been in a lot of these over the years, more than we'd like actually. It can be good because it makes everybody better because there's competition."

In the quarterback competition, Kiffin did not put a concrete timetable on when he would name a starter heading into the 2022 campaign.

"Always in these things, it'd be best to be early," Kiffin said, "but we're never going to rush it. We ideally never want it to go into the season, but that's even happened once. You've got to try to make the right decision. You need to be patient sometimes."

Jaxson Dart

Luke Altmyer

Jaxson Dart

Ole Miss fell in the Sugar Bowl to Baylor last season after quarterback Matt Corral went down with an ankle injury in the first half, and Kiffin addressed the difficulty of dealing with that loss on Tuesday as well.

"Every year is new," Kiffin said. "Every team is new. We've kind of put that behind us, and that was a difficult game. I felt we didn't play very well at all on offense. I'm the head coach and take responsibility for that. It was embarrassing, and we didn't give them many issues at all schematically.

"Problem is that it's your last game. You don't have another to play seven days later. It was difficult to go out like that. That was as bad a performance offensively as you can have, and unfortunately it was in one of the biggest games in the history of the program."

On the coaching side of the coin, Ole Miss made multiple changes to its staff over the offseason as assistants departed for other positions around the country. Despite that change, Kiffin expects many of the schemes on the field for the Rebels this season to look similar to the last two years of his leadership.

The head coach also confirmed that Charlie Weis Jr. and Chris Partridge would be the offensive and defensive play callers, respectively.

"There will be a lot of carryover," Kiffin said. "Defensively, promoting from within and Charlie having been with us before. There will be some changes but not overhaul. I don't think you'll see a whole lot of difference from the outside.

"That comes with success, and change is good. You have to embrace change."

Ole Miss will carry out spring practice until it concludes with the Grove Bowl spring game on April 23.

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