Lane Kiffin finds a way to adapt his offense to his personnel each season. (Mississippi Athletics Photo)
No matter where he has been, Lane Kiffin has been known for his offensive play calling ability.
Normally he’s depended on an aggressive passing game to put up big numbers but this year he’s relied more heavily on a running attack to get his Mississippi Rebels to 4-0 going into Saturday afternoon’s game against No. 7 Kentucky.
“I think they’re very aggressive and their style of tempo definitely puts pressure on you. Also, it’s a credit to him because you can see the way they are adjusting and how creative they are in their run game this year,” said Stoops on Monday.
“They have very talented running backs and they have a scheme where they can take it a lot of different ways. It’s very complex and creative with the way they are creating space and then their play action off of it.”
Stoops said Kiffin has a knack for adapting to the players around him each year.
“I go back to the days competing against Lane way back when I’m at Arizona and he’s at USC. Much different style of offense and much different style of defense,” Stoops said. “Obviously just a lot of respect for him and the way that he coaches and their aggressive nature.”
Kiffin has settled on Jaxson Dart as his starting quarterback and Stoops says he’s a “good player” who continues to get better each game.
“He’s explosive, he’s making good decisions. You know there’s been games this year where much like our offense they’ve just stopped themselves. I’m sure they’re sitting there saying who stopped us? We stopped ourselves, bad snap, bad communication, just certain things, but you can see when they’re clicking and in the rhythm,” Stoops said.
“He’s very talented. He can run, makes good decisions, can throw it, and like I said, they’re sitting on a lot of explosives that they’re setting up and you know they can do a lot of different things.”
Mississippi’s defense can also be a bit unorthodox.
“It’s just a little different with how they line up. Everything that we’ve seen is about how they present it and how they get to it,” Stoops said.
