Kiffin said challenge of having so many new faces in 2022 was something he ‘could’ve handled better’

July 20, 2023

Jon Sokoloff,

Lane Kiffin said a reason Ole Miss lost 5 of its last 6 in 2022 was all the new faces (not much experience together)

"In the NBA you see dream teams put together, but when it doesn't go well it's challenging for them to play well. That's similar to what happened to us"

RECAP: pic.twitter.com/QY9SwZVDkm

— Jon Sokoloff (@JonSokoloff) July 20, 2023

Nashville, Tenn. (WCBI)- Under Lane Kiffin’s leadership, Ole Miss football has gone 18-8 the past two years. They have incredibly high standards in Oxford, which is why the end to last season was so tough.

The Rebels lost five of their last six after starting out 7-0. The downfall started with a 45-20 loss at LSU. Kiffin said having so many new faces was a challenge he could’ve handled better.

“When you have so many new guys and things don’t go the way you want them to go, a lot of times it’s because the players don’t have years of experience with each other,” Kiffin said. “In the NBA you see dream teams put together, when things don’t go well it’s very challenging for them to play well and that happened with us.”

Ole Miss cornerback Deantre Prince said the LSU loss hit hard.

“We let one game lose the rest of them for us. I feel like we gave up after that game for the rest of the season,” Prince said. “It’s something we worked on from January to now to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Kiffin said the challenge of having so many new faces was something he could’ve handled better. The Rebels season gets started September 2nd when they host Mercer.