Kiffin’s patience with Corral paying off
HOOVER, Ala. — Mississippi junior quarterback Matt Corral no doubt pleased his coach, Lane Kiffin, with the worn adage of indeed taking ’em “one game at a time.”
Asked about playing Texas A&M later this season, Corral responded, “I don’t think we play them this year — I’m not sure. Do we play them this year?”
Assured that the Rebels do indeed host the Aggies on Nov. 13, Corral replied, “We do, OK. Well, I’m looking forward to that matchup.”
The good-humored Corral is a chip off his amusing coach’s block.
The quick-witted Kiffin didn’t get a chance to offer his stand-up routine last year to a large ballroom in his first season with the Rebels when the annual SEC media days were cancelled by COVID-19.
He didn’t disappoint on Tuesday. Kiffin, who was 5-5 in his first season with the Rebels, offered in amazement how his former boss, Alabama coach Nick Saban, continues finding motivation for his players every single year — occasionally from the press.
“You (reporters) say something that upsets him and gives him ‘rat poison’ and makes him mad, and then we have to deal with that,” Kiffin said of the burden then falling on him and his fellow SEC coaches. “I don’t know what the storyline will be this year.”
The Rebels’ main storyline is Corral, the SEC’s top returning quarterback. During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Corral became the fourth SEC player to lead the NCAA in total offense (385 yards per game). He completed more than 70 percent of his passes and led the league with eight completions of 40-plus yards.
“We didn’t even know if he was going to be our starting quarterback when went into camp (in 2020),” Kiffin said. “… He’s done a great job from a leadership standpoint, and he’s a very confident kid. We’ve got to get him to play more consistent because he played great at times, and he played really poorly at times.
“A lot of people forget, too, that was his first year as a starter. We know what to build off of — and we know what it should look like.”
Kiffin knows what it should not look like, too, and that occurred in the Rebels’ 33-21 loss at usually woebegone Arkansas in October of last year. Corral threw six interceptions against the Razorbacks but primarily excelled as Mississippi closed the season with four victories in its final six games.
“That says a lot about him that he was able to recover from that,” Kiffin said. “I get asked all the time, ‘Why didn’t we pull him?’ I’ve always believed that you (should) be slow to do that, because you get into pulling quarterbacks and going back and forth, and their confidence is lost.
“It’s not like another position.
You’re the leader, and you’ve got to take the ball every single snap. I’m glad we stayed with him, he learned a lot from it. … I’ve referenced obstacles, and that’s as good as it gets right there. Throw the ball to the other team six times — that’s a pretty good obstacle.”
Kiffin knows all about obstacles, many self-created through an already-colorful coaching career at the age of 46. He has served as head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, Tennessee, Southern Cal and Florida Atlantic. Following his firing from USC in 2013, Kiffin joined Saban’s Alabama staff as offensive coordinator from 2014-16.
Saban has won six national titles in his 14 seasons with the Crimson Tide, including in 2015 with Kiffin onboard. Kiffin is quite different from his former boss in that he kids around quite a bit with media and plenty of others, and enjoys a strong social media presence.
Kiffin was asked about his occasional humorous jabs at Saban and others via Twitter.
“He’s certainly not on Twitter, we know that,” Kiffin said of Saban, 69. “Now Linda, his assistant, is, and she probably prints (the tweets) out. Especially the ones he may not like. So he probably does see those. But it’s all in fun.
“You guys know how much respect I have for him, how grateful I am for him hiring me, the three years together and what they did for my career.”
Kiffin’s first Mississippi squad also gave Saban and Alabama, the eventual national champion, all they wanted on Oct. 10 of last season in Oxford, Miss. The Crimson Tide prevailed 63-48 in a shootout.
“That’s 111 points — that’s a lot of points between two teams,” Kiffin said. “That was a big game. Coaches say every game is the same, but when you have an elite program you’re playing against that you play every year in your division, it just means more. We had a chance.”
Mississippi’s scheduled game at A&M last season was canceled because of COVID issues on both sides, why in his defense Corral wasn’t certain the Aggies are on the Rebels’ schedule every year.
“Jimbo (Fisher) has done a great job there,” Kiffin said of A&M’s fourth-year coach. “He’s an elite coach and recruiter, and it’s an elite program. It will be challenging whenever we do play them.”