A deeper dive into Ole Miss at SEC Media Days

Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images

On Monday, Lane Kiffin and a trio of Ole Miss players addressed the assembled media horde in Atlanta at SEC Football Media Days 2K25, which serves as the unofficial pre-opening act of football season.

While nothing Kiffin, Austin Simmons, TJ Dottery, and Cayden Lee gave the media was outrageous or groundbreaking, they did offer a few juicy nuggets worth noting. Ruby covered the big picture of Kiffin’s comments yesterday, but since it’s July 15th, you better believe we need to dig into the minutiae.

To save you, the Red Cup Rebellion subscriber, at least 45 minutes in not having to watch videos of the Ole Miss squad’s appearances, I have combed through the transcripts to find the most valuable minutiae.

So let’s get to the stuff that may have been overlooked.

Oxford’s Kiffin Population Explosion

In Kiffin’s opening statement, he talked about members of his immediate family moving to Oxford in the last 5-plus years. His point was how unexpected and wonderful that has been, and he’s clearly thankful, as it’s been great for him personally and professionally.

However, this was the part of his statement that stood out to me:

“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.”

With the majority of the Kiffin clan now in Oxford, I wanted to know the percentage by which they increased the Kiffin population in the city. According to this site, which uses 2014 data, about 1 in every 1.82 million people in the United States has a last name of Kiffin.

If you look at this census site, the population of Oxford in April 2020 was 25,427. Based on the idea of 1 in every 1.82 million people being Kiffins, we will assume zero Kiffins lived in Oxford prior to Lane Kiffin’s hiring in December of 2019.

That same site ballparks the Oxford population in 2024 at 26,801, which still suggests zero Kiffins live there, but we know that’s not true. Let’s count the Kiffins in Oxford as of then:

• Lane
• His mom
• His dad
• His son
• His daughter
• His brother
• His brothers’ wife
• Brother’s kid 1
• Brother’s kid 2
• Brother’s kid 3
• Brother’s kid 4
• His ex-wife

That’s a total of 12 Kiffins.

So in 2020, we assume 0 percent of Oxford’s population was made up of Kiffins. As of early 2025, that number rose to 0.045 percent, perhaps making Oxford, Mississppi home to the largest concentration of Kiffins in the world.

Is There a Kiffin Compound?

Like the Kennedys at Hyannis Port and the Bush family at Kennebunkport, are the Kiffins all in a compound or is it more of a multiple houses on the same street situation? If they’re the only people on a street, even in separate houses, I think that would qualify as a compound.

Look, I bring this up to encourage the full compound situation so we can hear Lane at press conference say “...like the other day, we were all at the compound, having a good time and talking about this.”

LEAN INTO THE ARISTOCRAT VIBE.

Breaking Down Kiffin’s Hugh Freeze Joke

In this video, Kiffin gives the history of why he tweets at Freeze:

Lane Kiffin on the recent tweets about Hugh Freeze

Never change, Lane pic.twitter.com/slH5d7qXsJ

— Everything Ole Miss (@EverythingRebs) July 14, 2025

The clip is 40 seconds long, and he almost (ALMOST) gives a straightforward answer. Let’s break it down:

• From 0:00 to 0:31, there’s a question and an answer to the question
• At 0:32, there’s a slight pause, a recognition of an opportunity to roast Freeze, and a quick internal debate over whether to commence the roast

WHAT WILL OUR CONFLICTED HERO DO?

“Had nothing to do with his golf game, which sounds like he’s doing amazing at that. That’s great for him.”

A true showman!

Speaking of Roasting, TJ Dottery and the Media

Dottery was asked about what he’s learned from defensive coordinator Pete Golding. The first part of his response:

“He’s really intelligent. Like, he’s really intelligent. You know — well, you don’t know, but if you were to see our schemes and the type of things we run, you’d think we’d be running a lot.

But he simplified it so where so many coverages are somewhat the same or have some details that are the same to where all our coverages and scheme, it may seem like a lot but he simplifies it.”

Similar to Kiffin above, Dottery thinks about bringing up the details of Cover 6 (Saban/Golding term for Cover 3) and Cover 7 (Saban/Golding term for quarters coverage), but decides, no, I’ll just dumb this all the way down.

TJ Dottery, Don’t Make Me Even More Delusional

He was asked about going against Austin Simmons in practice:

“I think him being comfortable, like I’m watching him get more comfortable day in, day out. And the throws he’s making are miraculous, so just watching that is awesome.”

OH THAT’S THE GOOD STUFF.

Here’s the Frontrunner for Worst Question and the Best Response of the Week

Dottery was asked about transfer quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.

Q: Are you familiar with the quarterback that transferred from Ferris State, he arrived in the springtime, did he end up coming down here?

A: Yes.

The question-asker says he arrived, then asks if he actually arrived.

I know Google’s AI is trash, but at least try, question-asker.

Austin Simmons Definitely Follows Kiffin on Instagram

When asked about what he learned while watching games last year, Simmons said:

“Definitely like, controlling the storm...”

Control the storm. You got this. Have great Tuesday, everyone.

Book Recommendation

Simmons was asked about protecting leads late in games, and he ended it with mentioning he played in the Muck Bowl in high school between Pahokee (Fla.) and Belle Glade Central (Fla.). If you’ve never read the book Muck City, you should find time to do it.

Equal parts infuriating, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Cannot recommend it enough.

If They Can Run It Up on Kentucky, They Will

Cayden Lee was asked about the Kentucky loss last season and said:

“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.”

Everyone forgets the 2024 Kentucky defense was really good before injuries wrecked it. That doesn’t excuse the loss, but observe:

• vs. USM - 0 points allowed, 131 total yards
• vs. South Carolina - 24 points allowed, 252 total yards (pick six got USC to 31 points)
• vs. Georgia - 13 points allowed, 262 total yards

After the Ole Miss game (17 points allowed, 353 total yards), they tailed off considerably due to the aforementioned injuries and became a 4-8 team with a bad offense and defense.

Does this make the loss grind my gears any less? It does not!

I have no idea what Kentucky returns, and who knows what exactly Ole Miss will be. But if the Wildcats are primed to be torched, and Lane Kiffin’s offense can do said torching, then we’re going to see a significant rise in Mark Stoops’ blood pressure.