Why Lane Kiffin believes Ole Miss football will face improved Georgia Tech team this week
OXFORD — Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin once tried to hire Georgia Tech coach Brent Key, Kiffin said Monday afternoon.
The two overlapped for a season on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama in 2016, when Kiffin served as the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator and Key coached the offensive line.
"Really good line coach, really good teacher, good recruiter, and he's doing a good job there," Kiffin said.
Key, who joined Geoff Collins' staff at Georgia Tech (1-1) in 2019, took over as the Yellow Jackets' interim head coach following a 1-3 start to the season in 2022. Given the job permanently in November, Key owns a 5-5 record in charge of a program that went 10-28 in the previous three-plus seasons.
Ole Miss (2-0) contributed to that misery with a 42-0 destruction of the Yellow Jackets in Atlanta last season.
With his team sitting as a 20-point favorite according to most sportsbooks as of Tuesday morning, Kiffin is expecting a bigger challenge from Georgia Tech inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network).
He praised the play of Texas A&M quarterback transfer Haynes King, who has completed 65.6% of his passes for 603 yards with seven touchdowns and an interception through two games against Louisville and South Carolina State.
"I think they run a good offense that presents some challenges," Kiffin said. "They look better on defense too, so they really do look like they're playing better than they were a year ago."
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Ole Miss football's Georgia Tech pipeline
Reunions with previous institutions are becoming more common in college football's post-transfer portal landscape. Ole Miss just experienced one last week with defensive back Jadon Canady making the return trip to Tulane.
On Saturday, three Ole Miss players will take on the program for which they used to suit up.
The Rebels pulled defensive lineman Jared Ivey, a former Yellow Jacket, out of the transfer portal two offseasons ago. Last offseason, they landed two Georgia Tech transfers in cornerback Zamari Walton and defensive lineman Akelo Stone.
Both Walton and Ivey started the Rebels' Week 2 victory over Tulane. Stone played 36 snaps in a reserve role.
Ivey has already done this, playing 23 snaps off the bench in last season's Ole Miss victory at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
"You try to keep it on the back burner and just play like it's a regular game," Ivey said Monday. "But, obviously there's connections with old guys and coaches. So, it'll be a good one. It was super fun to play against all the guys last year."
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: Ole Miss football's Lane Kiffin tried to hire Georgia Tech's Brent Key
