Is this Ole Miss football's best shot to beat Alabama? Don't expect Lane Kiffin to say so

OXFORD — Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin is facing down his best opportunity yet to beat Alabama and his former boss, Nick Saban.

The early season eye test says as much. And the bookies do, too. As of Monday afternoon, the Rebels (3-0) were seven-point underdogs for their showdown with the Crimson Tide (2-1) on Saturday (2:30 p.m., CBS) at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama was an 11-point road favorite in last season's matchup. In Kiffin's first two clashes with the Crimson Tide as Ole Miss coach, his team entered as a 24-point and 14-point underdog.

But don't expect Kiffin ‒ who served as the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator from 2014-16 ‒ to parrott the conclusion the sportsbooks have drawn. In fact, he did his best to devalue the importance of Alabama's substandard performances in a home loss to Texas and laborious win last week over USF ‒ a team that went 1-11 last season.

"Previous games don't mean anything year-to-year, week-to-week," Kiffin said. "... Every week's different. Just because these guys struggled a little bit down in a nonconference type of game they're not used to playing, had some weather issues, it means nothing about the way they play in the SEC at home."

A classic sports media trope states that, when coaches step in front of the microphones to speak to the press, the messages they deliver are really intended to find their players' ears.

If that's the case here, the angle Kiffin has taken with his messaging is clear.

"We're preparing for an opponent that's got great players," Kiffin said. "I was saying this morning that (five-star freshman linebacker Suntarine) Perkins is probably the only player on our roster they wanted. So, if you look at it that way, it's basically 85 draft picks. We took what they didn't want. You gotta go there and play against that. You gotta be really well prepared. You gotta get some breaks. You gotta really scheme things out just to have a chance."

With that, Kiffin tempered external expectations. And, internally, he reminded his players that the coaching staff they're about to play against didn't think they were good enough.

Based on what Kiffin's players had to say Monday, the Rebels are falling in line. There was no acknowledgment from anyone of Alabama's potential vulnerability.

"At the end of the day, 'Bama's 'Bama," defensive end Isaac Ukwu said. "No matter what's going on. I know I've been a fan of college football for a while. At the beginning of the season, there's always this 'Oh, is 'Bama the same 'Bama? They lost all these (players).' But then, they still find a way to be who they are and who they have been over the last couple decades.

"What have we done lately?" Ukwu continued. "I mean, honestly. It doesn't matter. You can say they're having a down year, but what year are we having? We've only had three games. We're gonna go in there like any other week. Give them the utmost respect, and try to go out and play physical and win the game."

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Kiffin oh-so-nearly claimed his first win over Saban a year ago, when what looked like it might be a last-minute game-winning drive for the Rebels stalled in the red zone. Afterward, Kiffin explained that he didn't come to Ole Miss to almost beat Alabama, using an expletive for emphasis as he rejected silver linings offered to him by a reporter.

Kiffin's best chance to remove the "almost" has arrived. Not that he'll ever say so.

"We're going into an extremely hard place to play against an ultra-talented football team," Kiffin said. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Don't expect Lane Kiffin to say it's Ole Miss football best shot vs Alabama