OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin met with the media on Monday to discuss the Rebels’ opening week opponent, the Georgia State Panthers, on Saturday.
Ole Miss is coming off a 10-3 overall record from the 2024 season and has to replace many players.
“Obviously, a lot of new players with this team, so it’ll be exciting to come out and play in front of a home crowd that, you know, we really urge to be electric like it has been here at times,” Kiffin said.
Saturday’s game against the Panthers will be under the lights of Vaught-Hemingway. In years past, the early-season games have had an early kickoff time.
“So it was good to get a later kickoff for our fans. And so we’re excited with that,” Kiffin said. “Really urge them to stay, show up early, and stay and create a great home environment like we’ve had it a lot of times here.”
Looking ahead to Georgia State, which went 3-9 last season.
“This is a really good, really well-coached team that has really good players, a number of returning and a number of transfers from really big places that have come in,” Kiffin said. “Coach has done a really good job building this team. And, I mean, look no further than, you know, with only a few months to prepare, he went and beat Vanderbilt last year.”
Kiffin added that Georgia State has a good offensive coordinator in Hue Jackson.
“So these guys are going to have really good schematic stuff and really good players,” he said. “And so, we need to perform really well. And that’s why I’m saying to the fans, too, we all need to perform well. So let’s have an exciting Saturday night.”
Ole Miss and Georgia State will kick off at 6:45 p.m. on the SEC Network.
