Why Lane Kiffin isn't “overreacting” to Ole Miss' loss to LSU on Saturday

The Ole Miss Rebels are now firmly on the outside in the College Football Playoff just seven games into the 2024 season, but head coach Lane Kiffin isn't ready to overreact just yet.

The Rebels (5-2, 1-2 SEC) are not mathematically is out of the playoff conversation, but reaching that peak would likely mean Ole Miss has to win the remaining games, and that's no easy task in the Southeastern Conference.

On Sunday night, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin recalled his mindset following his team's loss to Kentucky two weeks ago. There are obviously things that need to be sorted out with the Rebels (especially on offense), but he's not ready to reinvent the wheel, even after another tough loss on Saturday.

That's largely because, despite the offensive woes, Ole Miss led the entire game on Saturday until LSU's final possession.

“Look at the analysis of the percentage of people who win (at Tiger Stadium) on nights and lead the entire game,” Kiffin said Sunday. “We messed up a lot offensively in the first half, dropped points and gave up three at the end. Tre drops the long ball, gets hurt, all these things happen, we're still going to win the game.

“So, yeah, I feel even more in this game that we're not going to overreact and change the way we run a program or anything like that. That doesn't mean we won't take care of some things on offense “That's what we're supposed to do as coaches when a certain area isn't producing the way we expect.”

This bye week comes at an interesting time for Ole Miss. On the one hand, the Rebels started SEC play in very disappointing fashion, and that's hard to take when you're unable to right the ship in the coming week.

On the other hand, Ole Miss needs to get healthy and figure out some things on offense if it wants to salvage the season. There are plenty of weapons in the Rebels' offense that can make them one of the most explosive units in the country, but that hasn't appeared to be the case on the scoreboard since SEC play began.

The Rebels will get their first chance to prevail on October 26th when they host the Oklahoma Sooners.