SEC Media Days: UF opponent Ole Miss

[Mark Wheeler]

Courtesy ASAP Transcripts...

Ole Miss Rebels​

Press Conference​

LANE KIFFIN: All right, thank you, Commissioner. Honored to be here. I don't take this for granted. There are only 16 of these spots that we get to hold and come up here, so a lot of appreciation for that.

Commissioner has been phenomenal. Just mentioned going into the sixth year, and he's been great to us. Keith Carter and Chancellor Boyce hiring us five and a half years ago, and the Ole Miss fans and Oxford and how, as he mentioned, a lot of personal things there and how awesome it's been.

It's really been an amazing five years personally and professionally there in Oxford and I reflect on that like life, with so many good things of gains and losses. With my daughter Landry being there and now Knox and Layla living there really is amazing. He mentioned, kind of broke it all down, my brother and his four kids living there. You know, it's really amazing.

And then with some losses there of now losing both parents in the last year has been very challenging. You know, just thinking on the way over here about my mother and how grateful I am to her, and it reminds me of coaches' wives, and to all coaches' wives in all levels how you really are the glue that holds everything together in these families with coaches like my dad that worked so much and the mom is doing everything at home.

So just really grateful to both my parents for that. Feel like they spent a lot of years and spent a lot of time taking us to a certain level. So what you're now experiencing that, which is strange of losing both parents, that you're really the highest on the family tree now of what's left, and what that means about -- they go next door and I don't think they leave you. They go next door and allow you to go to the next level.

So just coming off couple days with family and with Chris' kids, you know, whether that was dancing with my nieces at Morgan Wallen or yesterday out on the boat and seeing all the cousins playing with each other and how proud my parents would be of that.

So just really cool to see things through a different lens now. Awesome that there are so many Kiffins in Oxford to experience everything together.

You know, where I think of our program, where we are, and last four seasons there since COVID, three of those four seasons with top 12 finishes. I believe in the last 55 years of Ole Miss there has been four top 12 finishes.

So three of those to be in the last four years, one in the previous 51 years, says a lot about what we've been able to do through the staff, through the players, through everybody involved, especially the leadership above me.

Over that time, the third most SEC wins of all 16 SEC teams. That helps us tremendously. When we got there at Ole Miss, we had to sell to recruits, hey, when you come here this is what's it's going to look like. We're going to win. We are going to have first round picks. We are going to have the most players drafted in school history. We're going to win 11 games in a season, win 21 in the last two seasons.

So now that we've done that, we've seen the impact, whether that's transfers coming in or high school kids that have been able to see that. Especially with Mississippi kids to stay home knowing they can achieve and get all these things that maybe previously they needed to look to leave for.

The 2025 team, I think we have a lot of really good players coming back. Added a lot through the portal. It's been a very competitive offseason. I think that the groundwork of these last players over the last few years, what they laid, what they taught the players, has been very beneficial.

Like we say in recruiting, you know, you get what you see with us. There is no fluff in recruiting. We don't put on a show and then all of a sudden they get there and it's a different thing.

I think that's really helped us over time for us not to have many kids that are playing leave and go into the portal and for other kids to come to us because they know that.

And a lot of that is to our culture and staff. So to be able to keep our entire staff from last year was very critical. That's not been the case a lot of times in our years at Ole Miss. We had to replace a lot of really good coaches. I think we've done a good job of putting together this roster, working within this cap.

If you go back to retention of last year's players and the portal guys December, January, we went into that operating under this cap because we were told the settlement was most likely going to get approved and how that would work.

We get a lot of questions like, what's it like now? We've been operating -- we have -- under these cap guidelines of what was coming and what it was going look like. I think we've done a really good job of that.

Obviously means you can't sign as many players as you would like at times because you have a budget. So we're obviously hopeful that will be rewarded by doing that. I think it's obvious people aren't staying within that cap, so I think the whole thing will be, what does that look like? That's what we don't know. What does it look like when you don't and what are the punishments for that? Do you win and that comes later?

So that's remained to be seen, but already got the questions about the cap, what that's like having to do that. We've been doing that for a while, operating on that.

Very excited about this schedule coming up. We play nine games in Mississippi so that's awesome for our fans basically to have nine home games. It's amazing. For Oxford to have that for the businesses there is great.

So be a very competitive schedule and a lot of work to do with all the new players in the meantime. So just appreciative to be here. Thanks for you guys coming out. With that, questions?

 

[Mark Wheeler]

Q. Thank you for highlighting your family. Football brings friends and family together. Want to talk about friends. Wanted to ask if you would help us enhance and highlight the rivalry between your two close friends, Sarkisian and Smart. Who do you think is going to take this field next year? Sarkisian had a chance over Georgia, how can we look at it through your eyes?

LANE KIFFIN: I think those are the two premier programs and premier coaches in college football, so I think though do an amazing job. Having both of them, being with both of them at Alabama and seeing how they've used that, and then being with Sarkisian at USC as well as how he's used Pete Carroll things and implemented there, I think they both do an amazing job and really in those SEC meetings you're always listening to the coaches and their in putt.

I feel like both these guys really run their program truly as a CEO and know everything that's going on. They're very creative in their ideas and how to navigate through this world we're in now, so I think they're both really good friends and really good people; phenomenal coaches.

Q. You guys had some big wins last season and still came up just short of the College Football Playoff. What is it to you that makes playing in the SEC a lot more difficult or more than other conferences?

LANE KIFFIN: Flying over here I read the Commissioner this morning and things that he said. I thought there was something in there interesting. We talk about nine games versus eight games. People say, well this conference plays nine and this plays eight.

Well, I don't think there is anybody that would trade their nine games and want to come play our eight games you play down here and the places you play down here. You guys that have covered the SEC for a while, you can have teams not having a really good year for them but you got to go play at their place down here. It's just different.

So scheduling here in this conference and what you do week to week. And then the NFL draft shows that. Those are the players you're playing against. It's so balanced throughout the conference that every week you got to really show up. It's really like the NFL.

I don't feel like that is the case in these other conferences, or a really good conference that's similar to us that's top heavy but doesn't have the middle and the bottom the way we do.

Q. At this point of the year what's your personal focal point you're emphasizing the most along with the expectations for your players and staff members?

LANE KIFFIN: I just think that we basically restart each of these last few years because the turnover is so much in college football, which I wish it wasn't that way and it shouldn't be. You should be able to build within your program a lot of returning players. It's just the way the system is now; hopefully that gets fixed.

I don't think that's really good for anybody. Not good for the kids to switch schools every year. Just makes us restart and not expect that they know anything because they're coming from all these different places.

Q. You mentioned that Ole Miss had three ten-win scenes in the last four years. What core elements of your culture have driven to that level of consistency would you say?

LANE KIFFIN: I think we've had really good players over that time; really good schematical coaches that have helped that. I think those usually are the key factors there of playing really well. This last season we led the SEC in scoring offense and defense. That's really unique to do.

I think that to me shows how good that team was. We played 13 games; won ten of them double digits. Not one of those games was really close.

And then we went 0-3 in one-score games. That does to me show how far we've come as a program to be able to have games like the Georgia game or going to South Carolina and have a game like that.

Q. When did you get over getting left out of the playoff?

LANE KIFFIN: That wasn't that difficult. I mean, I tend to do better with things when they're done. You can't do anything to change them.

So it was what it was. I just think you're not going to go back over that too much, but just in general, and there has been a lot of talk about that since, I just think the system -- and it's not because of us, you know. I just think the system doesn't take into the scheduling properly.

Then you look at these other sports, basketball, baseball, you see teams that go on to win that weren't in the top because they played a really hard schedule and you lose some games. Like the basket goes in or out; in the end doesn't mean you're a dramatically different in that team. Just like you lose a game in overtime on the road.

Or the NFL. Got the Super Bowl and here is the five seed in the Super Bowl. So I just think that it doesn't account to that. Being a coach and understanding what teams take to go into certain places to play and have to get up every week versus other people's schedule, it's very different.

Q. Last year your ground game wasn't usually what you have done with your offensive system. Is there going to be any improvement on the way you guys develop the system? Or just talk to me and give me your take on what's going to happen.

LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, our ground game was definitely disappointing. That has been something we have done really well over our time for a long period time is run the football. You know, we weren't able to do that at times that were critical in these losses. All of these three losses we're ahead; two of them we're ahead the entire game basically.

Just need to kind of in four minute close games out. That's where we've been really good at that. I think that was year before maybe we were 4-0 in one-score games I think, and then we go 0-3.

So we've signed some different lineman, running back room is a lot different, and so hopefully be better.

Q. You mentioned the current cap in college sports. You've spoken about a salary cap before. Now that revenue sharing is underway, do you think college football should and can have a hard salary cap?

LANE KIFFIN: I think that's what we attempted. Doesn't seem like that's working very well.

So yeah, I mean, stating the obvious. That was the intention of what was going on because there were so many complaints when NIL started about, okay, everybody has different advantages, and different payrolls. Saw those a couple years ago.

I was up here at one of these joking about a luxury tax based on A&M's spending or whatever it was. So that was supposed to be being fix, and now it's not.

Again, we've tried to follow the guidelines because that's what we were told we needed to do. I'm not saying they're wrong for doing it; I'm not calling anybody out. If the system isn't solid enough to prevent that, then we really don't have a system.

So you're not operating on a salary cap, so...

Q. Seems like in past weeks you've had a few (regarding tagging.) Curious what the message or thought is behind some of those posts were?

LANE KIFFIN: Well, someone said that coming in here to me. I like Coach Fries, so I think they think that was something to do with like I was fishing, it was golfing. It really wasn't that.

I have a thing with him going back a few years ago when he posted a picture in response to me of like some two pound bass or something like that. So I kind of always posted bigger-fish pictures back towards him. Had nothing to do with his golf game, which sounds like he's doing amazing at that.

That's great for him.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

Q. Lane --

LANE KIFFIN: And I was fishing yesterday in the dead period, by the way.

Q. Lane, over the past three years people got to know a lot about Jaxson Dart on and off the field. You've got Austin Simmons, year one as a starting quarterback, and what do you think people should know about Austin on and off the field?

LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, they're very different. I mean, if you look at how they throw right-hand, left-hand, that would basically be about everything about them, like everything is that different.

That's okay. He's just got -- Austin has to make sure he doesn't have to try to be Jaxson. Jaxson wasn't Jaxson the third year of Jaxson until he was a third year.

He'll be fine. He's got elite talent. Does a great job. He's maturing. Did a great job when he came in in the Georgia game. We're excited about it.

Q. Early this season you played Tulane, one of the tougher teams out there. What do you remember about your last matchup with them? A close game in 2023. Do you think scheduling out of conference games is more beneficial or detrimental to your team?

LANE KIFFIN: I think Tulane has great players. They play really hard, like a lot of Louisiana kids. The new staff has done a really good job. We had a hard game down there with the previous staff.

So I think that it'll be a really big challenge for us.

Q. I think six or more SEC teams get new quarterbacks. Do you think there is a chance to level the field a little bit and make it more competitive in the league?

LANE KIFFIN: I think it was really level last year, so I think that in general my guess would be you're going to be leveled out for a while. Like the way that, whatever you want to call it, the as supposed cap works in some ways and some people following it.

So now some teams go out and go way above the cap, way above what you would think they would do if they were monitoring their cap on a specific player. I think because of that now you're seeing more one-offs where the player, five-star player that traditionally would go to these couple schools now goes to this other school.

It's kind of like something is up, right? Getting more money obviously. So I think it's going to level out a little bit if this is the direction it's going to where you're going to see not all the players stacked up at the top at a couple schools.

Q. To bounce off the couple questions for coming off a historic season not only for the Rebels but quarterback Jaxson Dart, do you feel like there is an extreme amount of pressure on Austin Simmons to fill those shoes?

LANE KIFFIN: I think there is. We try to work with him on that and that he has to be himself and not worry about that.

I think with that, whenever you follow somebody that's had a lot of success and the most wins in the history of school, most yards, touchdowns, basically everything, that puts a lot of pressure on you.

We have to help him with that. Got to coach and play really well around him. That's the biggest part of helping him with that.

Q. You lost a lot of players, both offensive and defensive starters, multiple wide receivers, quarterback as well. As a coach, how do you adjust what you lost, I mean, saying it lightly, just a few players?

LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, we lost a lot of really good players. Most players drafted in the history of the school. So we've replaced them with a lot of new players, and that's kind of the world we got live in now with the portal and how it works and how many kids go to a place for a year and leave, so not as many kids are being developed to take on those roles.

I think that problem has probably happened a lot around the country and will continue to happen. Just is what it is.

Q. You being an offensive guy, you know you got awesome guys in in the back getting in that secondary. In today's college football environment, what would you consider numbers-wise, like proper depth on the back ends. In your opinion, what would be a proper punishment for people that go over the cap?

LANE KIFFIN: First thing about the secondary, yeah, we got a lot of new players back there. Pete Golding does a great job with that. We had the same problem two years ago.

We'll just find the best ways to put them in the best positions to make plays. I don't have the answer for the punishment on the cap because it's not even -- I can't even say that because it's like here is the cap, but then here is these other contracts and are those going to get passed, what if you go I've on those in that system with Deloitte.

I don't think we even know. Is it even going to happen? We've got states passing laws where it looks like you can't enforce it. What are you going to have? The NFL, hey, these divisions you have a cap, but the NFC Central you don't have a cap, or teams manage Florida, you don't have a cap.

So I don't know that.

Q. Wanted to ask about your time in Oxford. Where do you think you've grown the most in Oxford?

LANE KIFFIN: Yeah, it's been an awesome time. Not to kind of dig too much into it, but even this weekend with family and stuff and just losing our parents, you know, and you just can't -- you got no idea what's going to happen. I was talking to our kids about that.

Okay, for instance, I was in Alabama. Played at Ole Miss and one summer went and visited my brother at this neighborhood in Oxford. I was saying to his wife. Ten years ago or something like that, what if I was going tell you you were going to go to all these jobs and I was going to be the head coach of Ole Miss and you're going to be here and the kids will be here and then Layla, Knox, and Landry are going to be here.

There is no way. But then our parents will be gone. It's just been an amazing experience. I just have -- I'm not saying this because I'm the head coach. I don't give you coach-speak. The people of Oxford, when you lose your parents and you see how they are and how they helped take care of them towards the end or how much they really cared about them, it just opened my eyes to a totally different way.

Basically went to Oxford, had this view. Then I got kids there so I had a different view as a parents there. Then how awesome it is to raise your kids there and go to college and high school around these families.

Then you see year parents at the end and lose your parents. (Zoom froze.)

I owe so much to Oxford and the people there. It's just been awesome.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

HE MODERATOR: We're joined by Cayden Lee. Last year you always have coaches tell you that you never know when a single play can determine a game. And there were a couple of games, Kentucky maybe, LSU, where if you made one key play, you might have played for everything. So is that just a great example of you never know the key situation?

CAYDEN LEE: Yeah, it's definitely a good example of you never know which play is going to matter. It could be the first play, could be the last play, could be the 59th play. So just treating every play like it's the best play of the game is very important.

Q. What do you tell people about Coach Kiffin, playing for him and maybe things about him that folks wouldn't -- because they don't get to see him the way you do?

CAYDEN LEE: If you want to see Coach Kiffin in his natural form, you'll come to practice, you'll be listening to Taylor Swift mid-practice and he'll be having coaches doing receiver drills, falling down and all type of stuff. It's just a really good environment.

Q. Lane's known for his personality on social media and jokes. He was talking today about some of the back and forth with Hugh Freeze and some of the other coaches. As a player, what are some of your reactions when you see that? And what kind of interactions do you have at practice with him along those same lines?

CAYDEN LEE: You know, if you're in Oxford, Mississippi, and we're over summer and it's raining outside and you just need something to laugh at, you go to Coach Kiffin's page, and you'll see him on a boat fishing, tagging Coach Freeze and it just gives you a laugh, like, why is he doing that. So, to be able to ask him about it later and go, hey, Coach, why did you do this? And he explains it to you, and it's awesome.

Q. We were talking with some people here at the Hall of Fame earlier today, and they said he's pretty much on the same path as others that would be enshrined in the hall of fame, not just walking around for the SEC media days. In your interactions with him, both the fun ones and for playing, why do you think he's the right guy for Ole Miss and he's a coach that does the right kind of job that could maybe wind up in that future position here in the hall of fame?

CAYDEN LEE: If you look at Ole Miss before he got here versus after he got here, I feel like it's a total change. I remember turning the TV on and looking at old clips of Ole Miss playing and the stadium wasn't packed.

Now we're sold out almost every game. Just being able to see the type -- I'll use this word to make him happy -- the type of aura he has bringing fans to the stadium and everything is really big.

Q. What can you say about the growth and development out of Austin this offseason as he gets ready to step into the starting job?

CAYDEN LEE: We've just seen Austin just take a tremendous jump from being a, quote/unquote, backup, just being able to to be that lead starting quarterback in the SEC is awesome. We've seen him just learn after Dart.

We saw him when he went into the Georgia game, and we really trusted what he was going to do. We knew he was going to be the player that he is today. And we really look for big things out of him this year.

Q. What grabs the attention of Lane Kiffin as a wide receiver besides the obvious catching the ball?

CAYDEN LEE: I feel like to be able to just grab his attention, it's just being -- the route detail. He's very big on knowing what to do, knowing the playbook inside and out. Not just knowing one specific spot. So just being able to be a smart player is very big for him.

Q. When you're thinking about playing this season, expanded College Football Playoff, Ole Miss right on the brink last year, what's the mindset of the team entering into this season for what you guys are thinking, feeling and talking about as you get ready to make a run?

CAYDEN LEE: We lost a lot of people after last season. Just being able to bring a lot of new faces in and being able to just preach that model. Going 1-0 is all that matters, because everybody wants to talk about the national championship, the SEC Championship, but nothing else matters but just going 1-0 every day and winning the first game, winning the second game. That's the message we have for our team.

Q. You mentioned earlier the idea of changing the culture at Ole Miss from a place that wasn't seen as a football powerhouse to one of the top programs in the SEC. What would it mean to be part of one of the great runs in the history of the program?

CAYDEN LEE: I feel like it would mean everything, just to be a part of that as a player, just being able to carry that with you for almost ever is just awesome. I feel it would do a lot for the community, Oxford, and then the fans as well. They deserve it. We're going to try to do our best to go 1-0.

Q. I wanted to ask you about last year against Kentucky. What do you think the reason that game that y'all had a letdown? Have you reflected on that game specifically? Because that to me is a game that really kept you out of the playoffs.

CAYDEN LEE: Kentucky was definitely one of the bigger ones we want to have back. They just came out and they played one of the best games they played all year last year, I feel like.

I feel like we didn't execute from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. I feel like we might have played a first quarter but slacked off in the third quarter and that caught us.

Just being able to go and play a full four-quarter game will be important to us moving to this next season.

Q. What is the way that you find when working with Austin, and like you said a lot of pieces changed this year -- how do you adjust to maybe the same game plan, of course, is what I'm hearing, but new people bring different skills and you want to play to those skills, how do you adjust to that and learn that after, of course, having successful seasons the past few years with Jaxson Dart and Tre Harris, who really had a consistency that could be expected, and this year's a little bit different, if you see where I'm getting at, the same success but a different way?

CAYDEN LEE: I feel with Austin Simmons, with him being a lefty quarterback is a total 180 where it used to be. If Dart was going to roll out to the right, now he might roll out to the left.

So you just flip the entire playbook almost. Now speaking more to the receiver position, from De'Zhaun Stribling, to Trey Wallace, Deuce Alexander, from everybody we brought in, I feel -- we kind of revamped. I feel like we're almost better as a receiver room than we were last year. I feel there's almost no drop-off at all.

Q. Do you like the way, going back to the Kentucky question, do you like how the schedule's formatted this year where you're not playing four straight non-conference games; you guys kind of get right into SEC play? I think Kentucky actually week two.

CAYDEN LEE: I feel like it creates a different mindset just being able to know that you have to win earlier. You have to win sooner. You have to win more often. Then just having to play four non-conference games at the beginning, it's kind of tough. I would rather kind of get into it a little bit earlier.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Austin Simmons.

Q. Austin, how can you be successful in a Lane Kiffin passing offense? What are the things that you need to accomplish?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: Of course, you know, with our tempo offense, we're moving so fast, so being able to process information at a quick speed, and also like just preparation really goes into a lot of things. So just being so well prepared that you can know, identify every single defense you see in front of you each and every play. You know what's going on in front of you. You know what to expect.

Q. I know you were in the Manning Passing Academy with LaNorris Sellers this summer. I'm curious, as a fellow SEC quarterback, what's your evaluation of his talent as a player? I feel like you're kind of in similar shoes in terms of where he was last year.

AUSTIN SIMMONS: I mean, his game speaks for himself. He's definitely a unique player. He has great size on him, obviously. He's a great runner. He's a great passer. He's just really good all around.

Q. I know last year, you had to watch and learn, but what were some of the biggest things that you learned by watching the games last year that you think you can apply this year?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: Definitely like, controlling the storm, seeing -- adversity is going to strike in this conference, each and every game is going to be competitive. Obviously seeing like how Dart handled each and every type of adversity he faced throughout the game, like if he threw an interception, stuff like that, really just staying calm and not freaking out.

Q. You guys have nine games in the state of Mississippi, eight of them being in Oxford, the other one obviously at Mississippi State. How big is that to play in front of your fans for the majority of the season?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: It's great for us. Our community is so well-rounded around the program. Of course, like, feeling that energy for, what, eight games. So we have eight games in Oxford. Just feeling the energy eight times on one day or night. It's just an amazing feeling because that stadium gets loud.

Q. We spoke with Coach Kiffin earlier today, and he talked about how you've been growing so much already as you've taken on this role as the starter. We saw you come in against Georgia and immediately have impact with a touchdown. When you're following up Dart, not that you're in the shadow or anything, to be clear, but that you're making your own kind of play and offense and everything, what's the process for you to work with the coaches that are returning and find your style and find the way the offense can work for you, at the same time as you're following up with something that's been really successful for a while and you want to play into that as well?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: It comes down to the offseason, building the chemistry on and off the field with your players. You have so many new faces coming in. Probably have, what, 60 new players coming in.

Just being around them and just make sure they have a great grasp of the offense and make sure we're on the same pages with my coaches.

Q. Along those lines, Lane mentioned there is inherent pressure to follow Ole Miss' all-time leading passer in that role. What pressure do you kind of put on yourself, and how do you deal with that going into the season?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: I don't really put any pressure on myself. I just think that I just have to forge my own legacy rather than just keep on building off from like what Jaxson did in his success. I just have to play my own game and just keep on going and growing as a player.

Q. You're stepping into the spotlight this year in your role there. What's the most important thing you would want people to know about you when they see you?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: I'm putting everything on the line each and every play. You're never going to see me back down from a fight. I never flinch. And every single play is going to be 110 percent.

Q. Where do you get your confidence from? It was a memorable moment for me and I think many fans to see you come in against Georgia. It was such a crucial touchdown. Where do you get your confidence from and what are you focusing on now on how you want to improve heading into the season?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: The confidence comes just from being from South Florida. I'm from Miami. Miami is pretty known for having all those great athletes coming out. Jeremiah Smith, he's from Opa-locka. I live 20 minutes from him. Just being around those top dogs and just competing with them at a high level, that just builds confidence on its own. And I just take it to college.

As far as like preparation, what I want to get better, I'll just say everything when it comes to my quarterback play. There's not one thing I want to leave out. And just really want to make sure that my game is close to perfection by the time the first game is.

Q. For you, coming in, a lot of players in this world that we're in now don't want to be a backup quarterback. Not that anyone wants to be the backup, but there's opportunities for guys who are as skilled as you to go start somewhere else. Why did you choose to be there through a year like last year where there was already an established quarterback, learn and get to the point now where, in the world of transfer portals and NIL and I can go anywhere, that you stayed and now you're going to be the starting quarterback, having already a year under your belt seeing this past very successful season?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: Because of the unique recruitment I had coming in -- I was a 2025 recruit -- so technically this is like my true freshman year, if you think about it. I think just like taking time just learning and seeing everything in front of me. Really just seeing how Dart prepared and stuff like that. And also just baseball is also a factor because I was playing two sports there.

That's always just been my main goal is just learning and progressing as a quarterback.

Q. Every year there's usually a surprise with the team, maybe offense/defense; is there anything that you can share with us that might be a surprise with this Ole Miss team?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: I'd say this team is very competitive. We talk a lot of smack when it comes to like OTAs and stuff like that. Even when it comes to runs, we always talk a little smack, and basically we have guys out there going 110 percent each and every rep. That's what I love about this team; this team doesn't back down.

But I just can't wait to see how we handle adversity during games and seeing how we just respond.

Q. How have you seen Cayden Lee kind of grow from 2023 and to now, and what are your expectations from him?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: He's a very good system player, I'll tell you that right now. He's always in the right spot. He's always doing the right thing. The stats speak for itself. Zero drops last year, over 90 yards. And we have some other top dogs coming in as well, just filling those spots what we lost this past season. So seeing him as an overall player, I just can't wait to see what he's going to do this season.

Q. The last few times y'all played LSU, it's come down to those last-minute plays. How are you all working to protect early leads as the season comes?

AUSTIN SIMMONS: So I think it's just like it all just comes down to what type of mindset you're going into the game with: Are you out there just wanting to just be out there, or are you dominating?

Always being on your craft. Also I come from a big rivalry game back in high school. We played in the Muck Bowl between Pahokee and Glade Central. I'm familiar with all those type of games, and I just can't wait to play.