Lane Kiffin compares Trinidad Chambliss to No. 1 draft pick: ‘This guy’s really unique’
By Jacob Moss
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Week 3 could have easily been a massive disaster for Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels after they lost their star sophomore quarterback Austin Simmons in the first quarter against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Simmons was forced out of the game after pulling up with a limp after taking off on a long run, meaning that the Rebels’ offense was left scrambling in the absence of their star signal caller under center.
Fortunately for the Rebs, though, senior backup Trinidad Chambliss was on the sideline, and as soon as he stepped into the game, he ran Kiffin’s offense to near perfection en route to a massive rivalry game win.
This was just about everybody in America’s first introduction to Chambliss, but Kiffin and his staff knew exactly what he had in the former Ferris State Bulldog the first time they saw him on tape.
“You know, our personnel people watch a ton of people and then they bring people to me, and I’ll sit and watch a bunch of quarterbacks, and he came on and I said, ‘wow, this guy’s really special and unique,'” Kiffin told reporters on Wednesday during the SEC’s weekly teleconference. “There actually was a moment, it was like with Cam Ward. I watched Cam before everybody else knew about him, and I said, ‘Wow, we’ve got to get this guy. This guy’s really electric.'”
Kiffin and the Rebels tried to get Ward to commit to Ole Miss, but that obviously didn’t work out in his favor. He did, however, manage to get Chambliss to make the move to Oxford, and that made all the difference in the world this past Saturday when his starter went down with an injury.
“I tell our staff, look at those examples all the time,” Kiffin said. “There’s one in our conference that lost their quarterback last week, and look at the difference in the game. The year before with Florida. How different they were until they got Lagway back. It’s like playing a whole different team. I’ve said to Oklahoma, Texas, you know, the 50-0 game. Texas beat Oklahoma because Oklahoma doesn’t have a quarterback. I’m just really happy he’s here.”
It’s very clear that Kiffin loves what he sees in his backup under center, and with the type of performance he put in last weekend, he may find it hard to keep Chambliss on the bench moving forward.
Simmons is supposed to be back this weekend, so it will be very interesting to see how Ole Miss navigates the QB position moving forward.
