Ole Miss had an easy time winning its season opener.Kentucky had more difficulty but won its opener, too.One game is all the two Southeastern Conference rivals get before jumping into conference play when the No. 20 Rebels face the Wildcats in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday afternoon.Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was mostly happy about a team featuring 15 players making their first start for the program that rolled to a 63-7 victory against visiting Georgia State last week.The Rebels’ offense gained 695 yards — 400 passing — and the defense allowed just 69 passing yards.But Kiffin doesn’t have to look far back to show his players that non-conference success doesn’t necessarily translate into SEC success.The 2024 Rebels rolled to a 4-0 start against non-conference opponents, outscoring them 220-22. Then came the SEC opener, and visiting Kentucky upset Ole Miss 20-17.”Look back to last year and we’re trying to do more preparation this year because of that jump from non-conference to SEC play,” Kiffin said. “Us not playing well the first time out last year, hopefully it’ll help us this year.”Ole Miss’ point total against Kentucky last season matched its season low, but the Rebels bounced back to win five of their last seven, finishing 10-3 and narrowly missing the College Football Playoff.”It’s been a long season and a long offseason since we played them last,” Kiffin said. “We just need to play better than we did last year.”Kiffin noted a couple of ways in which his team can play better than it did last week. The Rebels turned the ball over twice, and the coach said defense’s tackling can use improvement.
