Lane Kiffin seems to believe that his LSU team was put in an unfair situation during the Tigers’ loss at Ole Miss, and it had nothing to do with anything taking place inside the white lines, but instead, it involved someone pressing a button at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
During Wednesday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference call, Kiffin made a subtle yet pointed remark accusing Ole Miss’ game operations of playing music for too long of a time when LSU’s offense was on the field.
“Those games happen, and a lot of factors go into that,” Kiffin said, referring to the atmosphere at Ole Miss on Saturday night. “We didn’t protect really well around him [quarterback Sam Leavitt]; the crowd noise and music being played all the way through the snap when the center’s hand is on the ball. Again and again.”
SEC rules require stadium music to stop once the center touches the ball.
While Kiffin may have a case to be made that Ole Miss played music over its stadium speakers a bit too long, it’s hard not to interpret his comments as an excuse.
Kiffin laid out the accusation when asked about Leavitt’s struggles during the contest, and making a comment about music being played inside the stadium three days after the game ended seems unnecessary. By no means did he pin his team’s loss on the fact that music was being played when his team possessed the football, but Kiffin bringing the topic up opens himself up to criticism.
Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss in Week 3 made for one of the most emotionally charged atmospheres college football has ever seen after the head coach left Oxford for LSU just days before the Rebels played in their first-ever College Football Playoff game.
Ole Miss announced during the contest that it set a new all-time attendance record at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with 70,033 fans in the stands.
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The Rebels fed off the energy early and jumped out to a commanding 17-0 lead early in the second quarter before taking a 24-7 lead into halftime. Kiffin’s Tigers clawed their way back into the contest, scoring 17 unanswered points, but Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss stepped into his all-too-familiar role of game-changer late in the game and led the Rebels to a 32-24 victory.
Chambliss threw for 363 yards in the game, while Leavitt threw for 158 yards and picked up another 63 yards on the ground.
