Lane Kiffin Discusses Upcoming Scrimmage, Team Chemistry in Fall Camp

The Rebel head coach was made available to the media on Friday.

OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss Rebels are still 15 days away from their season opener against the Troy Trojans, but tomorrow's scrimmage for the red and blue marks the end of preseason, in Lane Kiffin's mind.

The Rebel head coach was made available to the media on Friday, and he is looking for many of the same things in this scrimmage as the one last Saturday.

"Very similar," Kiffin said. "We're still in evaluation mode. The next one after this is more about situations and special teams rotation, so this is really big. This is like the last preseason game, from an NFL model."

One of the largest questions for Ole Miss as the season approaches centers around who will take snaps at quarterback for the Rebels. Kiffin admitted on Friday that the competition is still too close to call.

"I don't know," Kiffin said. "Some days, it's very close. Some days, you can think one or the other. It'll happen when it happens."

Regardless of whether it's Jaxson Dart or Luke Altmyer behind center for Ole Miss early this season, Kiffin has seen some progression from the latter as he enters his second year with the program.

"Confidence, which would be expected," Kiffin said. "If you're a backup to a pretty elite player, you don't take a lot of leadership because you really can't. That's a natural progression, but he's done a great job of that."

Early in camp, the Rebel head coach harped heavily on team chemistry and "buy-in" from the players on the roster, especially the large number of transfers in the ranks. As the season inches closer, he believes that he has seen some progress in that area.

"I feel like it's going the right direction," Kiffin said. "We've had some really great speakers who know some of our players, and they help with that. I feel like that's going well, and we've got good buy-in."

Ole Miss and Troy are set to kick off on Sept. 3 on SEC Network.

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You can follow John Macon on Twitter at @JMakeGillespie.

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