The bye week came at the perfect time for Ole Miss for all sorts of reasons.
Lane Kiffin, for one, needed the extra time to try and move past the Rebels’ latest inexplicable loss. No. 18 Ole Miss is 5-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC following an overtime stinker at rival LSU two Saturdays ago.
“It was really tough initially,” Kiffin said Monday. He was holding his weekly press conference to open Oklahoma week. “It’s one thing if you’re going into a game and feel like the team wasn’t ready.
“Just having these personnel issues all over the place. We went and took the lead. The guys responded well in an historically, extremely hard place. I thought the guys did a really good job in that.
“We let it get away at the end. We had the ball a couple of times and a four-point lead to put the game away. They made two big fourth-down conversions, including a play of a lifetime by the quarterback or else we win. That took a while.”
Kiffin and the Rebels have no choice but to finally move on. The Sooners (4-3, 1-3) roll into Oxford on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN. And they’re turning back to Jackson Arnold at quarterback in an effort to jump-start their own moribund offense.
Arnold is a former five-star recruit. He was ranked by On3 as the nation’s No. 6 overall player in the 2023 class, as well as the No. 4 quarterback.
“It will be Jackson,” Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said.
RELATED: Brent Venables names Jackson Arnold the OU starting QB at Ole Miss
Ole Miss wanted Arnold as a 2023 five-star recruit
Ole Miss recruited Arnold heavily.
However, he ultimately went with the Sooners but has since struggled to find footing now in his sophomore season.
So much so, Arnold was replaced as starter by freshman Michael Hawkins, Jr. He hadn’t appeared in a game since September 21 until he came off the bench and completed 18 of 36 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown in a 35-9 loss to South Carolina.
Oklahoma benched Arnold during a 25-15 loss to Tennessee in Week 4. Ole Miss will get after him with a pass rush ranked seventh nationally with 24 sacks.
“Both guys have played a lot this season,” Kiffin said. “We’re ready for both. I don’t think they call a whole lot of different plays (depending on the quarterback). But, again, that wouldn’t matter. They’ve got a new play-caller.
“Both guys move around really well. Both are big-time talents. We’ve got to make sure we take care of ourselves and play really well.”
Arnold’s completed 57.2 percent of his passes this season for 763 yards and eight touchdowns to three interceptions. He started Oklahoma’s first four games.
Kiffin and Ole Miss veteran offensive lineman Reese McIntyre each met the media Monday. Here’s everything they had to say, in videos provided by Ole Miss Sports Production.
