Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said he wasn’t looking ahead to the first CFP rankings that were released Tuesday night.
The Rebels (8-1) landed at No. 6 as they prepare for a non-conference game against The Citadel (4-5) on Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Miss.
“I really hadn’t thought much about that,” Kiffin said of the rankings before they were released. “This isn’t coach speak. I really don’t, because it’s still so early and so much left to play.”
Ole Miss still has SEC games at home against Florida and at rival Mississippi State, plus a potential SEC Championship Game, before it will know its ultimate postseason fate.
But Kiffin did say he was curious about how the SEC — which has nine teams in the Top 25, including six in the top 12 — would fare in the initial CFP rankings.
The SEC is expanding from eight conference games to nine next season, partly, Kiffin said, because of the expectation that strength of schedule will become a bigger part of the CFP equation.
“I’d look less about where we are and more of (the SEC as a whole),” Kiffin said, “just to see, OK, are they actually going to pay as much attention that we were told they are going to now?”
The expanded league schedule will leave one fewer opportunity to schedule a non-SEC opponent such as The Citadel. Kiffin said the most important thing for Ole Miss as it enters the final third of the regular season is to continue to get better for the stretch run.
The Rebels have beaten Oklahoma and South Carolina since suffering their loss at Georgia.
“We’ve got a big challenge to get better this week,” Kiffin said. “I thought we’ve gotten better in some areas the last couple weeks. We’ve talked about focusing on ourselves. We’ve got a lot to work on.”
Citadel head coach Maurice Drayton said the Bulldogs, like the Rebels, are focused more on themselves than their opponent even though their opponent is an FBS powerhouse.
“We’re coming off back-to-back weeks of preparing for rivalry games with Furman and VMI,” Drayton said, “and I realize I have to do a better job of communicating with the players.”
The Citadel ended a two-game losing streak when it defeated VMI 35-24 last Saturday, but it was a struggle against a team that entered the game with a 1-7 record.
The Bulldogs fell behind 21-0 early in the third quarter, scored a touchdown before the end of the period, then reeled off 28 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, though it couldn’t relax until the final touchdown with 12 seconds left.
“I learned a valuable lesson, that you have to stick with your process,” Drayton said. “The focus has to remain on our process no matter who we are playing.
“We have yet to play a complete game this season, and that’s our goal every week. We want our guys to compete against that guy in the mirror. If he can be the best version of himself, then we’re going to be fine.”
