Lane Kiffin on his QB, Twitter exhanges
HOOVER, Ala. – When it comes to keeping an audience, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has no trouble at all.
Kiffin and the Rebels wrapped up Day 2 of SEC Media Days Tuesday at the Wynfrey Hotel. As expected, Kiffin did not disappoint.
See what he had to say below:
After last year's game against Alabama, how close do you feel like your team is to beating them? What would that mean to be the first assistant to beat Nick Saban, if it so happened?
Kiffin: "Well, I don't look at it at all about being the first assistant or whatever that stat is. We were close, played really well on one side of the ball, but that doesn't matter now. The year before, I think we lost 66-3 or something like that. So, every year is different. Every year has new challenges.
“I said at some interview on the way in here, the discussion was about Alabama and Coach Saban and the parity in college football, and I said he's done it different than anyone's ever done it, and better than anyone's ever done it. No disrespect to the coaches back before. There's not supposed to be parity with 85 scholarships and 25 a year.
“My dad tells me the stories of coming in and having 75 freshmen in his class coming in. So, to do what he's doing nowadays and every year, you guys say something that upsets him and gives him rat poison and makes him mad, and then we have to deal with that. So, I don't know what the story line is this year. It will be something that you did about losing too many staff guys or the quarterback or whatever, but he just finds a way, and it starts with recruiting. He just does such a phenomenal job of recruiting.
“So, when you've got the best players and you've got to go against them, that's enough challenge, let alone before you even get into how great he is as a coach.”
Who would be your vote for preseason All-SEC quarterback this year?
Kiffin: “Who would be the vote? I would say our own quarterback in Matt (Corral). Statistically, he played as well as anybody in the country. Like I said in the stats, reading them in my notes from our SID, only four players, four SEC quarterbacks have led the country in yards per game. So, to me, that just shows how good he can be if he's consistent.”
You brought up Twitter. I'm just kind of curious, how did you kind of come to embrace social media? Do you genuinely enjoy the banter and all that kind of stuff?
Kiffin: “Yeah, Twitter was not a plan like a long time ago. It really started—I didn't know anything about it. It started a long time ago for recruiting, and then there was a time there when there was a rule that didn't make any sense that you could not text the kids or the parents, but you could direct-message them on Twitter. So that's really how we had to learn to use Twitter or we're going to fall behind, even as an assistant coach at Alabama.
“So, it just kind of took off from there. I do enjoy the fan part. I think it's comical when I jump on there and read things and how people react to things or the rumors that people write. So, it just gives people a platform to say and do whatever they want. I guess sometimes I do that too. So, it allows me to kind of be a normal person on there.
“I do enjoy it. Just seeing it and seeing the interaction, especially in the SEC and the fans. And I'll point out something even to Knox like on the plane or something, say, okay, here's this tweet, and it only has 20 retweets. It will be something serious. Then here's something that isn't serious at all but has to do with the SEC, and here's hundreds of retweets. So, there's a lot of passion here in this conference and the fan base. I enjoy it.”