SEC MONDAY NOTES, PART TWO | What SEC team has beaten Texas the most? You’ll never guess

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was the first speaker at the SEC Media Days’ afternoon session at The Omni in Dallas (after the lunch break) to address the media.

• Kiffin joined Johnny Vaught last year as the only coach in Rebels’ history that has more than one 10-win season.
• “It’s been an amazing outpouring of support, of stories, from former players, former coaches, and especially former staff and how many friends came out of the (Tampa Bay) Bucs community,” Kiffin said, of the recent passing of his father, legendary defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.
• Coach Kiffin said his dad’s first rule of getting better was to show up and do your job.
• On keeping his players’ heads level with so many people in the media picking them to have great success this season: “Going back to the New Year’s Six bowl, the Peach Bowl, and with so many of our players deciding to stay at Ole Miss – the additions through the portal, set up to have a good team. There’s plenty of noise that means nothing. Plenty have been ranked high and not played well. In respect to coach Saban’s terms, this is a rat poison situation here.”

• More on the high expectations, and many, including ESPN analyst Greg McElroy picking Ole Miss to reach the SEC Championship Game this season: “It’s the ultimate team sport. But there’s a ton of work to do on the field and off the field for us to perform well.”
• What’s the perfect mixture of returning players and the transfer portal? It varies from program to program. At Ole Miss? “There’s a lot of really good portal players, but a lot of really good players coming back. Three of them are here today, coming back, instead of going to the NFL.”
• On his own quarterback, Jaxson Dart: “We’re always trying to improve players. I think with Jaxson there’s not as much to point to. A lot of times we have to work on leadership things with someone. …If (the new EA Sports College Football 25 game) had a rating of leadership for a quarterback, he’d be a 99. Just continuing of his decision-making, him maintaining what he did at the end of the year, and not forcing balls, and making really good decisions.”
• Will Texas do well in the SEC this season, the Longhorns’ first? “They were in the final four last year, have a lot of players coming back and continue to add great high school players and portal players. They’ve got one of the elite rosters in America. Sark (Texas coach Steve Sarkisian) would know well the challenges, and it’s not like they’re coming into the SEC with a coach that hasn’t been there. …The SEC is really challenging. Study road records and study road records at night in the SEC. There are really hard places, really hard places that are challenging to play, and you come into this conference and you get that more.”
• On Texas, OU coming to the SEC: “I think the commissioner (Greg Sankey) has done an amazing job, and we should thank him for how he continues to push our conference as the elite conference in college football. It’s really exciting, two of the elite colleges in the history of college football. …That’s really exciting for the conference, continues to kind of elevate into a super conference.”
• On replacing Quinshon Judkins, the former Ole Miss running back who transferred to Ohio State: “We wish him the best. It’s very hard to replace. We have a number of guys that are excited about. Some have some health issues that we’ll have to work through. …I don’t know. We’ll find out what that is.”

Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, who is coaching at his alma mater, began his address by wishing well to those in Houston impacted by Beryl, and Kiffin, for the loss of his father.

• Lea is about to start his fourth season at Vandy.
• Called the impact of the hire of strength coach Robert Steiner “immediate.”
• Lea decided to name himself as defensive coordinator (the job he served at Notre Dame).
• “It’s impossible to function in the portal without resources,” Lea said.
• Fifty-three players on the roster this year, he noted, that were not with the program a year ago.
• On Oklahoma and Texas coming into the conference: “It’s just a great time for the SEC,” he said. “What the commissioner does as leader of this organization just impresses me endlessly. …It feels like they’ve been with us for a while, but certainly to have them as part of the league and to compete against them is going to mean a lot.”
• On new rules about coaching staffs expanding: “We anticipated this, just in the design of the staff. When you look at like the addition of Jerry Kill … we also added Steve Gregory. Steve is someone I worked with at Syracuse and I have a lot of respect for, secondary coach for the Lions and the Dolphins, a guy that will really support me as I take on two roles.”
• “I’ve always had a great respect for Jerry Kill and as a young coach competed against him in the Texas Bowl. He was at Minnesota and I was at Syracuse. Watching his team play, such admiration for the style of play. He has a reputation for program-building. …It’s how he’s done it. It struck a chord with me as a young coach, and I’ve continued to follow him throughout my career.”
• It was noted that new SEC member Texas has a losing record against Vanderbilt, 8-3-1. The caveat: all of those meetings came before 1930. Coach Lea laughed at that. The teams will meet in Nashville this season, on Oct. 26.