re: Game 1 - vs Louisville (Nashville) - 9/6 - 6:30pm ABC

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Head Coach Jeff Brohm

(Opening statement)

We’re excited to get the season started. I think we’ve had great preparation up to this point. We’ve put in a lot of hard work. I know all the teams have, so it’s just going to be, in my opinion, a great opportunity for us to go down in a great venue, play a tremendous opponent on national TV and showcase what we’re all about. I think with Ole Miss they’re a proven team, they played outstanding last year, got a Heisman contending quarterback back, got a Heisman contending running back back and they’re both really good. They’ve proven that against good competition last year, so this is a battle tested team that played extremely well last year and I know they’re ready to get things going as well. So, we’ll have our hands full but that’s why you play the game so we’re looking forward to Sunday night and hopefully we’ll have a good week at practice.

(On how to prepare Lincoln Kienholz for the opener)

“He’s done a really good job, and we have seen improvement from the spring until now. Even as you go back and look at some of our scrimmages, he’s had really good practices. Our first scrimmage he played very, very well, our second scrimmage was not quite up to that par. I thought he was trying to force the ball up the field too much and make too many plays, and that’s what you have to do as a quarterback. You’ve got to be dialed in, locked in, and take what the defense gives you while you’re trying to score points and make plays. The fact that he hasn’t had a ton of game action, he’s going to have to know when to take his shots and when not to, and make sure we’re being very protective of the ball while trying to make plays, and that’s going to have to be some important decision making he has to make come game day, and hopefully we’re prepared to do that.

(On how to prepare for new coordinators)

“We’ve studied that a lot, both what they’ve done, of course, and what the coordinator from East Carolina has done. I would think they would err on what they’ve done in the past, and what Trinidad has been good at and what has made the offense successful. I’m sure that’s going to be a big focus on what they do, along with the mixture of some new wrinkles. When the ball is in his hands and the running backs hands every play, you’ve got to contain them, you’ve got to tackle them, and you’ve got to limit the big plays. You can’t allow the quarterback to get out and scramble, buy time, and make plays, if he does that, then that’s when he becomes deadly. We’ve got to make sure that we’re sound in what we’re doing and sound in our rush lanes, and not let him extend plays as much as he can, because he is that talented and he is that hard to tackle. That’ll be the challenge for us: making him play within the pocket, challenging enough routes, applying enough pressure, but not trying to allow him to escape and create and buy time and make big plays.”

(On defensive depth)

“I think we’re as healthy as we can be at this point. I think we feel confident in the back end. As far as rotating guys in, we’ll rotate some, but we’re playing to win. Our best players will be in as much as they can within reason, you’ve got to spell them at times, especially on the defensive line and up front. As far as our secondary, we’ll see what guys are playing at the highest level, and they’ll get most of the repetitions, and if they’re playing very, very well, then maybe it’s less rotation than you think. We do have very capable guys in the back end, but we’ll see how that rotation works in the game.”

(On Isaac Brown’s progression through fall camp; running back group as a whole)

“I think Isaac [Brown] is ready to go. He’s had a good camp. I think he’s fresh and ready. I think we’ve got a good running back room as well around him that will play also. Getting them enough touches, getting the ball in space and letting them do their things is what we’ve got to do and they have to be sound in the passing game, protect the football and then go make plays when they touch it. But I feel confident Isaac is ready to go.”

(On the offensive line progression through camp)

“It’ll be a challenge for us. I like our group. Once again, new faces that we haven’t had, the depth behind, we have to continue to get those guys better, but I think there’s probably six we feel we can rotate in there quite a bit. We’ve had a couple little nicks here and there that may have affected seven and eight. But that group just we have to continue to work. The offensive line, we have to play hard, we have to be sound and we have to do things as a play caller and offense to take care of which means some have some balance and make sure we’re not asking them to drop back and pass every time. A lot of different things you can do to try and throw the defense off that we have to do in order to let our offensive line play well, but I think they’ll play hard. They’ve worked really well to this point, but yes, they will face a challenging front that we’ll have to all do our part.”


(On the challenges for the new defensive staff)

“Very good point. For us, that is the case, we have used the headsets more than we’ve had in the previous camps. We’ve been in the press box and simulated game conditions more than we have in the previous camps. We’ve really talked about it to a great length about as much as you can to get ourselves ready to go for that, basically, new situation that we’ll have. Within the group there is experience, but when you have a new play caller, you have to make sure that he’s experienced a lot of things through fall camp that have come up that I think we have tried to correct and sharpen up. I think we’ve got a good plan. We just have to go execute it. Now what will happen in this game, they will challenge us with their tempo, they’ll challenge us with their playmakers and we’ll have to really just be up to speed, be able to do things fast and feel confident in the direction they’re going and go with it. The communication will be critical. That has hurt us in years past where we’re not all on the same page, so that’ll be as critical as everything. It’s not only getting calls in, but making sure we’re on the same page, we’re able to communicate it when that ball snaps we’re in position ready to go.”

(On the current five-for-five cases)

“I thought I’d get some questions on who is eligible and who’s not, because it does change every day. From my vantage point, I think all coaches want rules and structure and regulations and whatever they are, we’ll abide by them. Right now, with the courts being able to overturn a lot of things, I don’t like that. I think it’s important that we abide by the rules as coaches and as teams and as conferences and as college football. I think it would be a better game if we did. What happened was with the five-for-five and they kind of threw some different dynamics in it, which I understand. You want players to have the ability to play, but to go to the NFL and come back – no, I’m not in agreement with that. I don’t know if anyone is. You go by what rulings they give you, right now things could change every day and weekly, so you prepare for that. We have Jabari Mack who came back, right now is eligible to play, he’ll play in this game. Kalib Perry is back with us, he’s currently not eligible to play, but we’re working hard to get him eligible and there are some things he has to do. And every team has different elements to that. So we just go with the flow, adjust and make the most of it.”

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Lane Kiffin came off like a man who badly wanted revenge on Ole Miss, but everywhere he turned he was rebuffed. Eventually, he found a target: Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.

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That changed when LSU convinced Ole Miss linebacker T.J. Dottery to enter the portal and transfer to LSU. Ole Miss pivoted back to Ferrelli, offered him a significant raise over what he was expected to make at Clemson, and added a key piece to its defense. The old-school Swinney wasn't happy over what he thought was blatant tampering. And while LSU may or may not have just done something very similar in luring Dottery away from Ole Miss, Kiffin egged Swinney on to go public against the Rebels, which he did in a jaw-dropping press conference where Swinney brought the receipts and implored the NCAA to look into the case. 

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Kiffin even passed along information, according to multiple sources, to help Swinney in his crusade against Golding and Ole Miss. Clemson offensive line coach Matt Luke, the former Ole Miss head coach, called his alma mater to give it a heads-up on what Kiffin had helped convince Swinney to do.

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