Kiffin follows SEC commissioner’s advice not to answer every question asked

By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Sports Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin remembered, and followed, a piece of advice from Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey on Thursday.

He doesn’t have to answer every question. No matter how much Kiffin might want to share his take.

Kiffin passed up an opportunity Thursday as Southeastern Conference wrapped up media days when asked about where Ole Miss boosters rank in the league.

“I am not about to start putting rankings out on boosters from top to bottom in the conference,” Kiffin said to laughter. “God, I want to so bad, though.”

Kiffin recalled that Sankey told him to remember that the SEC has grown a lot and no, he doesn’t have to answer every question. So Kiffin tried to follow that advice — to a point.

“Like I said kind of before, you want to look at the best boosters in the country and eventually the schools that have the most money that decide to pay the players, just look at recruiting rankings the next few years. That will give you your answer.”

TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT

College running backs have noticed how their position is being treated at the NFL where teams are refusing to reward veterans with big contracts. So they’re working to make themselves as valuable as possible by becoming more versatile.

Quinshon Judkins of Mississippi was All-SEC as a freshman after running for 1,567 yards and scoring 17 total touchdowns. He noticed Saquon Barkley didn’t get an extension from the New York Giants and told ESPN that it’s a big concern.

Judkins chose Ole Miss knowing coach Lane Kiffin would use him in a variety of ways, increasing his future value to the NFL.

“The selling point for me was how Coach Kiffin could use me in the passing game, the run game, not being a basic running back,” Judkins said. “Expanding my game and showing the NFL and everybody what I can do as a player.”

Arkansas running back Raheim Sanders wanted to focus more on this season personally. But yes, he thinks the position is being undervalued by the NFL.

“I feel like they should be getting more money,” Sanders said.

KEEP IT SHORT

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer tried to correct himself Thursday during his third appearance at SEC media days.

“My three children have not let me forget that I had the second-longest opening statement last summer, so they have been telling me for two weeks, ‘Don’t be that guy again!’ I didn’t think I was long last year, but apparently I was, so I’ll be much shorter this year or try to,” Beamer said.

Beamer logged in with an o pening statement that counted 2,185 words. Only Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea talked more with 2,340 words to start his comments a year ago. Beamer used more than 2,000 words as estimated by 247sports.com as he covered everything from 38 new players to special teams.

“So Sutton, Olivia, Hunter — my three children — hope I did better with the opening statement,” Beamer concluded.

ONLY ONE

Texas will be joining the SEC in 2024 along with Oklahoma and bringing both the Longhorns’ burnt orange and nickname of UT to the league.

Make no mistake. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel knows who the real UT is.

“There’s only one real UT,” Heupel said of Tennessee. “One right shade of orange.”

That’s not because Heupel won a national title playing quarterback at Oklahoma, where he later coached. No, Heupel coaches at a program now that not only is a charter member of the SEC, the conference was formed in a hotel in Knoxville where a plaque still marks the spot.

GREAT TWITTER FOLLOW

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has more than 629,000 followers on Twitter, and some of them include his Rebels like senior defensive end Cedric Johnson. And yes, Johnson thinks Kiffin is very good and funny on Twitter.

Kiffin also is different on social media than in real life.

“If you follow him on Twitter too much, you would think he’s a completely different person when you met him in person,” Johnson said. “He’s pretty low key and laid back.”

Kiffin tweets so much Johnson couldn’t pin down one as the funniest he could remember. Players coming into Ole Miss who are more familiar with Kiffin’s social media persona can be a little shocked at how different he is in person.

“If you’re a freshman coming in, I feel like it could be a shock is like, ‘Oh, this guy, he’s really laid back and chill, so I feel like could be a shock for some guys,” Johnson said.

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