What Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said about Penn State ahead of the Peach Bowl
Peach Bowl week began in earnest Tuesday with the first media availabilities of the week taking place over Zoom. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke Tuesday morning about his Ole Miss Rebels’ matchup with Penn State.
The two programs, who are meeting for the first time ever, will face off in Mercedes-Benz Stadium at noon Saturday in Atlanta.
Here’s everything Kiffin had to say about the Nittany Lions and the upcoming matchup.
On Penn State QB Drew Allar
“He’s hard to beat, takes care of the ball really well. Really good mixture of being able to throw the ball and then get out of trouble and make a play and make a first down with his feet. These guys are always really hard, what I call student of the games when you see them play. They rarely make any mistakes. When you couple that with the best defense in the country, that’s a really good combination. That’s why these guys have won so many games.”
On Penn State having co-coordinators on offense and defense
“Well, the first thought, people would think, well, that’s in our favor with (defensive coordinator) Manny (Diaz) leaving, but that presents challenges too. We don’t have any idea what they’re going to do. It’s like opening the season with no preseason games or being someone’s second game. That’s actually a really big challenge. It’s just more that we’re going to have to be ready for whatever they play and play really sound and play really good football.”
On players opting out from Penn State and previously saying he didn’t expect any from Ole Miss
“Yeah, I probably jinxed myself by saying that. Kind of a surprise to us, (defensive end) Cedric Johnson decided not to play in the bowl game. So we wish him the best of luck. We’ll miss him. He was a really important part of this team. But everybody’s got to make their own decisions nowadays, and kids think about things differently. So it is what it is. But everybody else is here. As far as those guys, they’ve got a lot of great players. They’ve recruited at a really high level for a lot of years in a row, have not built through the portal. So I think they can sustain injuries or opt-outs more than a lot of programs would be able to.”
On Penn State’s defense
“I think they play really hard. Obviously they have great players, elite talent, great coaching. But they play really, really hard and really physical at home and on the road. Sometimes you see these teams with electric home atmospheres and advantages, like these guys have, like some of the SEC teams, but then they won’t play quite as hard defensively on the road. These guys are not like that. These guys bring an old school mentality with new school elite talent.”
