Lane Kiffin praises Ole Miss fans for a packed house after previous game's complaint

The Ole Miss Rebels held off the South Carolina Gamecocks in a 30-14 clash at the Vaught-Hemingway this Saturday.

It was after a grueling two-week stretch that the Rebels returned home — only to find the atmosphere strikingly different from when they last played in Oxford.

When the Rebels faced Washington State in their previous home game, Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin had one complaint: severely lackluster attendance from the fans and the student section.

Lane Kiffin appreciative of a packed home stadium

The people of Oxford didn't disappoint Kiffin twice, as they sold out the Vaught-Hemingway the night before the game.

The Rebels were greeted by a packed home stadium, which Kiffin praised just as promptly as he complained about it the last time.

"Yeah, I thought it was great," Kiffin said when asked about the overflowing attendance for the late kickoff in his post-game press conference.

"Like I said, the challenge kind of is if you’re going to be an the elite team, and things we got to do, you know, if you’re gonna be an elite environment, you got to get there early, because that starts in warm-ups with the other team and how you feel it. And I thought when we came back out, it was it was really intense. And looked up, and it was, it was loaded."

"So it’s great to see, I think teams feed off that, especially defensively. You think about a lot of elite loud environments, and you think, over the years of time, a lot of times they usually have some really good defenses. So I think defensive players especially respond to that. So it’s great to see.”

The Rebels didn't hold back in reciprocating the electric energy that reverberated through the crowd, even if that earned them a penalty.

With Ole Miss taking steady steps towards the college football playoff, the Rebels would expect the same energy at least in their remaining games.