Kiffin: Injured Ole Miss WR Tre Harris ‘headed in the right direction’ + other RebTalk takeaways
Lane Kiffin rarely, if ever, discloses publicly any substantive injury information about his Ole Miss Rebels.
He stuck to script Thursday while making his weekly appearance on RebTalk, his weekly coach’s show with David Kellum, the voice of the Rebels.
Senior wide receiver Tre Harris — who has five touchdowns in the first eight catches of his Rebel career — is very much questionable for Georgia Tech. Kickoff inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is set for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
Harris suffered a knee injury in the 37-20 comeback win at Tulane.
“We’re headed in the right direction,” Kiffin said, before quickly moving on.
Whether the Rebels have Harris or not, they can take solace in the presence of veterans Dayton Wade and Jordan Watkins, a pair of one-time transfers from Western Kentucky and Louisville, respectively. Harris came to Ole Miss from Louisiana Tech in the off-season.
Watkins leads all Rebels with 11 receptions. Wade and Harris are tied for second with eight apiece. True freshman Cayden Lee, however, is the only Ole Miss wide receiver outside of Harris with a touchdown so far.
“Obviously we lost some firepower with outside receivers last year. (Jonathan Mingo and Malik Heath) are both in the NFL now, and these guys have done a really good job. Tre obviously got banged up. We’d scored 80 points in one game and one series with him. That’s pretty good. He had eight catches for five touchdowns. That’s got to be a record.”
Here’s everything else Kiffin touched on during his RebTalk appearance.
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Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin looks on against Tulane at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans, La. on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. (©Bruce Newman)
ON WHAT HE SAID TO OLE MISS AT HALFTIME AT TULANE
“I just said, ‘You guys gotta start listening to me.’ First half, they weren’t listening to me. I just said, ‘Hey, stay the course.’ Really, the game of football, when you’ve watched it long enough, coached it long enough, you can’t overreact. Everything was kind of going their way. Some plays were there and we were just missing ‘em.
“So, just stay the course. Don’t overreact. Let our players keep playing. Let’s get some turnovers on defense, and let’s take this thing one possession at a time.”
ON OLE MISS CB DEANTRE PRINCE
“I thought Prince played really well (at Tulane) and kind of lived up to how well he had done in the off-season and expectations. He’d been a little bit injured before Week 1, so it was great to see.”
ON WHAT HE WAS THINKING DURING JARED IVEY’S SCOOP-AND-SCORE TD
“Please score, because we haven’t been doing very well on offense.”
ON IF HE TRUSTS CADEN DAVIS MORE THAN SEBASTIAN JANIKOWSKI
“I did try like a 76-yarder with Janikowski (as head coach of the now-Las Vegas Raiders), which the owner (Al Davis) didn’t like very well. I think I was fired the next week. Hopefully (Ole Miss athletics director) Keith (Carter) likes long field goals, the chancellor. It is a record.
“This guy’s got a big leg. He’s hit from 60 easily, which is crazy, and we took the wind for the fourth quarter. We had the decision at half whether to take the wind and we decided to wait until the fourth quarter and it paid off.”
ON IF WE CAN EXPECT MORE FROM MICHAEL TRIGG
“I hope so. If he runs the right route and catches the ball, we’ll be good. He did a good job (at Tulane, finishing with a critical 21-yard touchdown late). Had kind of a rocky start to the season, but it was good to see that he got in there and did a really good job. Sky’s the limit for him.”
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Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key and Kiffin were on staff together at Alabama for a season
ON THE TECH OFFENSE
“They’re leading the ACC in offense, so they’re doing something right. Transfer quarterback, like everybody nowadays, doing a really good job. They’ve got a new offense and they’re doing good running and passing.
“They’re a pro-style offense now. Coach Brent Key, who was with us at Alabama, has done a great job. Has them playing really hard. Shoot, these guys had Louisville beat. They were ahead with four minutes left in the game.”
ON WHAT CONCERNS HIM THE MOST ABOUT THE TECH
“I’m more concerned about ourselves — that we don’t get in a trap game and we come back from playing a lot of snaps in a hot game Saturday and just play really well. Back home, take care of the football and get the running game going. Play really sound football.”
ON THE DEPTH OF THE OLE MISS DEFENSE
“I think that was probably a little overlooked (at Tulane). In the game, 30-3, dominate the second half. Really, it was just offense. If our offense had played good, I think we would have been happy with how the game was. To go into that heat on that turf, it was really hot, and that’s something I’m sure they were thinking was to their advantage, and here we are in the second half shutting them out for the most part, except for the field goal.”
ON HIS PREGAME EXCHANGE WITH A TULANE PLAYER
“I was just protecting our players. Guy was yelling at our players. I tell our players not to yell back, so I did it for them. Do as I say, not as I do.”
ON JUICE KIFFIN PREFERRING NATURAL GRASS OR ARTIFICIAL TURF
“Grass. You know why? Because our turf, like out on the defensive field out at practice, is so hot, that I actually had him out there once and I felt bad, ‘cause you could see he had to pop his feet up to keep his paws off of it. He’d rather have grass.”
ON JARED IVEY, AN OLE MISS CAPTAIN AGAINST TECH, HIS OLD TEAM
“Done a great job. Really has taken another step here. Rushing really well, playing the run well. We’re excited about him. I hope he’s eating well (at Boure, where he was the guest for RebTalk on Thursday), because a big challenge this year was his diet and his body composition. Hopefully y’all are giving him healthy food.”
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