OXFORD, Miss. — Selection Sunday has come and gone, and after a 10-2 regular season, the No. 11 Ole Miss Rebels are set to play the No. 10 Penn State Nittany Lions in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl.
This will be the first-ever meeting between Ole Miss and Penn State on the gridiron, and it will be the Nittany Lions’ first Peach Bowl appearance. Both teams obviously have plenty of film studying to do ahead of their New Year’s Six matchup, but what makes things interesting is the fact that Penn State has recently hired a new offensive coordinator.
During the Peach Bowl press conference on Sunday, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and Penn State’s James Franklin were both immediately asked about their teams’ preparation in light of the recent hire by the Nittany Lions.
“Obviously without getting into a whole lot of strategy — with Lane actually on this call, that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Franklin told reporters. “We made a change, and we have co-coordinators, and they did a great job for the last two games of the year… We’ll keep things structured the way they have been for the last two games of the season.”
Kiffin, of course, gave a humorous response.
“I’m glad James went first there because I didn’t know much about the situation,” Kiffin said. “I was hoping James would answer so I would have my answer to that. It seems like we need to prepare a lot for the next two weeks.
“We know that they have great players led by a great head coach. Obviously made a difficult decision and one that was in the best interests of their program, and they’ve done a really good job the last couple of weeks.”
Franklin then immediately chimed in with a witty request of his own.
“If any of the Ole Miss reporters could ask Lane some questions that could give me some understanding what’s going on in his program too, that would be helpful,” Franklin said.
Any sort of preparation will be critical for both teams, as they have never seen each other on the field. Kiffin was asked about his level of knowledge of Penn State’s personnel and was upfront.
“I don’t know a lot. I don’t really — I kind of say this all the time,” Kiffin said. “I think you guys think that we watch more football on Saturdays than we do… I don’t really get to watch much football.
“I got an early report from my personnel people that [they have] phenomenal players, great starters on defense. I was hoping Coach Franklin was going to announce they’re opting out. That would help us with that too. So that’s all I know.”
Kickoff between Ole Miss and Penn State is set for 11 a.m. CT on Dec. 30 at Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and the game will be televised on ESPN.