LSU Tigers HC Lane Kiffin Wants To Focus On His Players During Ole Miss Week

The LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels are going to be the talk of college football all week as the most-anticipated game of the season approaches on Saturday. After months of focus being off the field, though, Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin genuinely seems to want all eyes on the players for this game.

Outside of any off-the-field storylines, this should be a great game of football between two talented squads. Pete Golding and company did a good job of keeping the roster afloat after the coaching change, and they really feel like there won't be much difference this season.

During Monday's beginning-of-the-week press conference, Kiffin wanted to focus on the play on the field rather than the other obvious talking points.

"A lot's gonna be made about me, but this is about the players being prepared really well and playing really well. You know, Pete [Golding]'s not gonna tackle anybody; I'm not gonna throw any touchdowns," said Kiffin before making a quip about saying the same thing when facing Nick Saban.

Kiffin highlighted the fact that this is the first SEC game, and they will be heading on the road against the team with the second-longest home win streak in the country. 

"We've got to prepare really well. It won't be about all the other stuff. It'll be about how well did we practice, how well did we prepare," added the coach.

There is only so much pleading that Kiffin can do to take the attention off himself for this game, though. His pre-College Football Playoff departure from the Rebels program has created one of the most antagonistic relationships in all of the sport between himself and that fanbase. It was a necessary evil to take on the LSU job, but they had to know what the response was going to be.

Kiffin's role as the "villain" of the sport has only grown exponentially thanks to the recent controversy over the attempted addition of "formerly professional" athletes to the roster. Now, there are even more from outside of Oxford tuning in to see something go wrong for the Tigers.

There are many who are thinking back of Kiffin's time with Ole Miss, when he returned to Neyland Stadium to face the Tennessee Volunteers and had a wild assortment of items (mustard, golf balls, etc.) thrown onto the field from fans. This Rebels fan base seems to harbor even more contentment for Kiffin than the Vols did.

At a point, though, this much attention off the players could be a good thing. The storyline doesn't really have time to start with the team coming out slow against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. Kiffin is imparting that onto his players.

“There's just gonna be so much attention, hatred, everything on me. I said, 'You just get to go play,'" added Kiffin. "And I said, 'Really, the pressure's on them. We're the team that won seven games last year. They won 13. They return two Heisman candidates.'"

The last part about the Rebels being under more pressure is an interesting way to sell it to the team, but the reality is that no one is going to be giving LSU any grace if they struggle in this game. Such is the nature of this new regime.