Lane Kiffin Weekly Press Conference

Head coach Lane Kiffin met with the media Monday via Zoom to preview Wednesday's Signing Day, as well as Saturday's road trip to LSU (2:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network). A transcript can be found below.

Opening statement…
"It's good to be back at work with the players being able to practice and being able to play. Obviously, we wanted to keep playing. The A&M game, we had the same issues they had earlier where they cancelled. It is what it is. Chance to finish the season with a winning record in all SEC games, which would be pretty exciting in our first year to do. Especially knowing that we let a couple of them slip away that we should've won.

On LSU…
"Big challenge. Extremely talented team as always. Even though it won't be full, you're still going into Baton Rouge, which is not an easy place to play ever. They're coming off a great win where I don't think many people gave them a chance. Huge challenge for us."

On his Merry Flipmas shirt…
"It's Christmas time. My favorite holiday of the year I guess. Someone gave me the shirt, "Merry Christmas" and they spelled it wrong. It was free."

On how success on the field has led to success in recruiting…
"A lot. Especially your first year and guys can't officially visit. There was probably a lot of concern out there that this was going to be a disaster class because we don't know the kids and we can't get them here. One of the best things about here is to come on an official visit for gameday and see the town and the university and the stadium, and they weren't able to do that. I think the performance on the field, with all the national games has gone a long way. The last few weeks have been awesome, great responses from kids. I think not just the success on the field, but they talk about seeing the energy on the sidelines, players having fun. They mention a lot the difference between the two in-state programs. It has been great."

On what his war room will look like for signing day…
"We saved some spots, which were used in three transfers post signing day. Then still have a few spots. This class will be a lot better, like we said it would be, even with the COVID issues. I'm just proud of our assistant coaches. It hasn't been easy. I think not having a game last week helped us a lot. We spent a ton of time on Zooms, basically doing home visits with kids on a screen. It has been really neat. We're not done yet. I think you're going to see some more exciting things the next 48 hours."

On how the team looks after the time off…
"I don't think it's ideal. We're definitely going to have fresh legs. That part is good. It has taken a little time getting back into it. And we don't have everybody yet. The COVID guys are trickling back in, some got back today, some are back tomorrow. That's a whole different challenge. Some of them are very significant players."

On filling the middle linebacker spot in the recruiting class…
"We want to take the best available players, especially when we're early on as we're continuing to try to build a program. I think later on, after years, then you get more specific like that. We would love to add an impact middle linebacker for sure."

On saving spots for the transfer portal…
"There is not. This is difficult. Like I have told our guys. It's kind of like being in the NFL. If we have really good players who want to come, do we save for free agency? Or do we cap out and take really good players? We obviously still don't know a few guys, won't know until Wednesday for sure. It's not an exact number at all. We could get all these guys we want and be capped out. Or, if we don't, we're not going to reach and we can go get some free agents."

On if he talked with Ed Orgeron before taking the Ole Miss job…
"I don't think I did. I talked to him years ago about it and obviously had him on staff twice since then between USC and Tennessee. But I did not this time."

On how a big win like LSU's over Florida can help a team…
"That changed everything. You could see postgame, their energy. They played extremely hard in the game. The game could've gone the either way 100 times. You don't throw a shoe and you're probably talking about a whole different deal. I think that re-energized them. It would've been a lot harder if you lose that game, you go back and are on whatever losing streak they would've been on. I'm sure that gave them a bunch of energy and they want to finish strong."

On what it would mean to go to a bowl game this year…
"I hope it's not if it happens, I'm assuming it's when it happens. We're excited about that. It helps for development of all your players. Fan energy, it will be great to play in a great bowl game. Actually, some of our mid-year signees that will be January guys can actually come practice for a few days with us. That'll be pretty neat too."

On his relationship with Ed Orgeron…
"I would've been I think 24 when Pete Carroll hired me. Ed Orgeron was carried over from the previous staff. I was just a young coach. He was a recruiting coordinator who had been a great recruiter. I learned a lot from him, just watched how he worked. I'd go to visits with him—we'd go in-home visits and in schools together—so I learned a lot from him in recruiting. Then when we got to Tennessee was able to talk him out of leaving New Orleans. He was in Louisiana, he was happy and at the Saints, and we were able to talk him into coming there. Then the USC thing, he was there before me. He said when USC offered a job, he said, 'I'm on a plane to L.A., I'll meet you there.' He got there a day before I got there. He was so excited to back to SC. Obviously he did an unbelievable job last year. Great recruiter and great motivator."

On LSU's Derek Stingley…
"Really good cover player. I would think he's playing. I thought, it looked like on the TV copy, he was in pads and stuff, so in order to travel him and put him in pads, he must have been close to playing, or else I don't think that would've happened. I would certainly think he's going to play."

On if they'll do anything different to get the team refocused after the time off…
"Just talked to them a lot this morning about the importance of the game. You're going to remember the rest of your life if you go into Tiger Stadium and beat LSU. Nobody's going to remember if it's COVID or opt-outs or any of that stuff. Pretty neat. None of these guys have done that. This is a huge game and really important too, besides beating LSU, I think all of you guys would've said that this was a successful season, after seeing the all-SEC schedule rollout, that you're going to have a winning record, so it'll be awesome."

On if Auburn has reached out about their head coach opening…
"I don't. That's just a product of, when your players play well, you're going to be in rumors like that. There has been no conversations or anything like that. I wanted to say what I learned from my mentor, that, 'If you guys are going to keep asking this, I'm going to have to tell you, I will not be the head coach at Alabama. Ok? So stop asking me.' I wasn't supposed to say that, but I just had to."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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