While Ole Miss coach Pete Golding was speaking to local reporters in Oxford, his predecessor was doing the same thing down in Baton Rogue.
LSU coach Lane Kiffin held his Monday press conference around the same time Golding was speaking and covered many of the same topics, including his return to what’s expected to be a hostile environment, going against Trinidad Chambliss and so much more. We didn’t pull every word Kiffin said, but here’s everything he said about Ole Miss, Golding and players.
Lane Kiffin, LSU head coach
On returning to Oxford to face Ole Miss…
I think it is unusual. Like you said, it’s one team you built and now a new team that you’re building, so it’s probably a really unusual situation that way. Obviously, I know a lot is going to be made about me, but this is about the players being prepared really well and playing really well. Pete isn’t going to tackle anybody. I’m not going to throw any touchdowns. I used to say the same thing when we played Coach Saban, and he joked that he wouldn’t do very well in coverage at his age. But this is about our guys. Like I talked to them about today, this is the first SEC game. Both teams are 2-0, and we have to prepare really well. It won’t be about all the other stuff, all the noise and everything. It’ll be about how well we practiced, how well we prepared and then how well we played on game day. We’re going into a place that has had a lot of success. You’re going to play a team that has the second-longest win streak in the country, the second-longest home winning streak in the country and phenomenal players. When you look at the end of last season, you’re talking about the best-playing quarterback, running back and kicker in the country coming back. That’s going to put you in position to win a lot of games. We’re going to have to prepare really well and play really well in all areas.
On what makes Trinidad Chambliss difficult to defend…
That’s a big challenge for us. I broke it down to them and said, “Here’s the best-playing quarterback in the country last year when you look at how hot he was.” You can say he isn’t that experienced because it was his first year starting there, but he had already won a national championship at the highest level he could at the level he was playing. Then he took a team to the Final Four. He doesn’t make many mistakes. You have to remember you’re dealing with a really mature quarterback who doesn’t make many mistakes, so you have to play really well for a long period of time. Trinidad is 24 years old now and still playing college football. That’s the same age as Drake Maye and Caleb Williams. Everybody says he doesn’t have that much experience because last year was his first year starting in the SEC, but he has a lot of maturity in age and has played in a lot of big-time games. You’re going to have to play really well for a long period of time against him.
On how familiarity with Ole Miss affects LSU’s preparation…
This is a really unusual situation when you talk about the familiarity with the offensive players because there is so much familiarity. When I worked for Coach Saban, I think after I left it benefited me as the coordinator on the opposite side of the head coach much more than it benefited him. When we first played Alabama, in the COVID year or whatever it was, the game was 60-50 because I had listened for three years to all the things he taught us that he didn’t like, and then we ended up using them against him. I think in this situation, that benefits them more than us from a coaching standpoint because Pete sat there for the years we were together and heard me say what we didn’t like playing against. As a head coach on that side of the ball, Coach Saban and I were much more likely to tell the defense what we didn’t like and what caused us problems than the coordinator was to tell the head coach, if that makes sense. There’s just so much familiarity. I don’t know if this has ever happened before where people play the next year, half the coaches are split, those coaches are now at the previous place and some of the players are split, too. But I was thinking about this before coming in here. I’ve told you guys before that in games there are winners and losers, but with decisions and things that happen, there isn’t always a winner and loser. Michael gave me the stat today that this is the first time in 64 years both teams have been ranked in the Top 10 in this matchup. That says to me this is the most relevant matchup between these two teams in 64 years. I think that’s a really neat thing. We were able to be part of building a program there, and Pete is doing a great job continuing it as a Top 10 program. When we got there, they had won four games. When we got here eight months ago, they were 7-6. I think it’s a really good thing where a lot of people can look at it and say both sides are doing really well and both sides won.
On limiting negative plays against Chambliss and Kewan Lacy…
Now you’re getting into strategy more, so that’s a tough one to answer. But Trinidad extends plays. If you look at Trinidad and Kewan last year, there were very few negative plays at all. They both have phenomenal feet. Even when we didn’t block somebody, you didn’t get negative plays because Kewan would make the guy miss and Trinidad would scramble around. They rarely played behind the sticks because of that. I don’t know that people look at things that way, but I looked at it that way when we recruited those two because of how well they move and how good their feet are. Then as we were playing games, you might go through an entire game and have only two negative plays between the two of them. The way we gave Trinidad the ball last year, he’s touching it every play, and Kewan is touching it on basically every run. It’s really hard when you have guys that good to create negative plays against them.
On preparing LSU for the emotional environment in Oxford…
We talk about that. I guess there are real safety issues and things like that, so there are people who have a plan for that, and it is what it is. But I told the players today, “You don’t have anything to worry about as far as attention on you all week. There’s going to be so much attention, hatred and everything on me. You just get to go play.” I told them the pressure is really on Ole Miss. They’re the team that won 13 games last year while we won seven. They returned two Heisman candidates. How often does that ever happen in the same backfield? We had it one time with Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. They have the second-longest winning streak in the country. So our guys just get to go play. The pressure isn’t on them.
On Pete Golding’s strengths as a coach…
Pete has great relationships with people. He does a really good job of coaching really hard. He reminds me of my dad in that way. He coaches players really, really hard on the field, but then he loves them up, too, so they know he really cares about them. He also does a really good job schematically of giving people problems. I always remember when we went to hire him, I was researching him because I actually didn’t know Pete personally. I just knew how well he had done. When we were talking about hiring him away from Alabama, someone we both knew told me that when Nick Saban interviewed Pete, after interviewing a lot of coaches, it was the most impressive interview he had ever seen. He was interviewing for a position job at the time and then moved him up to coordinator, I think after about one game or something. For somebody who has interviewed that many defensive coaches to say that about him says a lot. He’s really smart, and the game is really slow for him. He sees it really slowly when everybody else is going really fast, and he does a great job communicating with the guys during it. We put him upstairs so he could really maximize that from upstairs, and he has done a great job.
On whether LSU can thrive in an us-against-the-world environment…
I think our teams over time have done well in those environments, like going into Tennessee and playing there. I think our team did well in the first week with all the stuff that was out there, even though it was a home game, just dealing with all of that. I also think these kids choose us. They know what they’re choosing. Kids who maybe don’t think that way or who are concerned by that probably don’t come to us. They go to a different type of program. They know what they’re getting into. We are who we are. As much as we choose them, they choose us, too.
