Lane Kiffin is well aware of how vital recruiting is to success on the gridiron and nowhere is that more accurate is that to say than in the SEC.

That was part of the reason Ole Miss decided to name the former FAU coach as the man to lead the Rebel program back to the top of the SEC, simply put, Kiffin knows how to land the talent needed to succeed at the highest levels college football.

During his introductory press conference in Oxford on Monday, Kiffin was asked to share his plan for recruiting. According to Kiffin, he’s already begun his work to help Ole Miss on the recruiting trail.

“Yeah, we are going from here, I believe, we are going somewhere. They gave me a schedule, I didn’t know what it was but actually last night, actually, had a meeting with a recruit last night – I think eight o’clock last night. I started at 6:30 a.m. this morning,” Kiffin said about this recruiting plans. “You don’t win in this conference by just being a good coach. You win this conference by having really good assistants that get really good players. There’s too much talent in this conference to just thinking coaching alone does that.”

Given the fact the window for the recruiting period is quickly closing and coaches only have a few more days to be on the road before the Early Signing Period arrives next week, Kiffin will likely be spending the next several days hard at work before even getting a real opportunity to engage with the players he inherited from Matt Luke. Despite not knowing many of his players just yet, Kiffin expressed his belief that players know his reputation in college football and expressed that knowledge can only help his locker room and Ole Miss on the recruiting trail.

Before hitting the road to recruit, Kiffin said he is scheduled to meet with his new players. According to the new Ole Miss coach, every player will be given the same opportunity moving forward in Oxford.

“I believe that’s our next step in the next hour or two… Open competition, everyone has a clean slate, whether you’ve been a great player or you haven’t played at all,” Kiffin said. “Just motivate them and the good thing I think is, not to sound arrogant but I think they know who we are, players we have coached, championships and stuff.

“So, that usually makes it a lot easier when they know you’ve done it and know the players you’ve coached and so they say, a receiver says, ‘Oh, I remember you coached Amari Cooper.’ Him winning the Biletnikoff (Award) or you are a running back and they say, ‘I saw what you did with Derrick Henry and Reggie Bush, two Heismans.’ We have a lot of really good things to sell, we have proof of so we don’t have to say this is what it will look like, but we have done it before.”

Lastly, while Kiffin has not been on the job very long, he shared one exchange he already had with one of his new Ole Miss players when asked if he will recruit the Rebel players that have entered the NCAA transfer portal. According to Kiffin, a Rebel player has already removed himself from the NCAA transfer portal following his hire in Oxford.

“Sure, we will look at everything, everyone has a clean slate,” Kiffin answered. “I’m not going to give any names but I had a kid today, just when I was walking around the field, came up to me after entering the portal, I guess earlier in the season, and came up and said, ‘Hey, I was leaving because I felt like I wasn’t getting developed and wasn’t the right type of offense for me but I’ve never met you but I know what you’ve done so I’m taking my name out of the portal, if you’ll have me back.'”

All players just want a fair opportunity to compete and Kiffin is eager to give his Ole Miss players a chance to do just that moving forward in Oxford.