Lane Kiffin speaks about importance of mental health training for the Ole Miss staff
By Keith Farner
Published:
Lane Kiffin discussed mental health from the podium on Thursday at SEC Media Days, and noted that he didn’t realize it at the time, but the Ole Miss staff was the first to get such training.
The motivation was not to sell it to parents during recruiting, Kiffin said, it was not about thinking outside the box, but creating a new box.
“We do that in all areas, I feel like, in our program,” Kiffin said. “We don’t ever do anything because it’s in that old book of how to coach. How to do things in this mental health area, it really was not in that old-school coaching book at all. It was just, ‘Hey shut up and go practice and play.’ Especially in the sport of football.”
Kiffin said that going through mental health issues over the years with his players, and not having tools other than to send them across campus led him to explore this area.
“I was excited to do that and just excited for the education with that and the ability to see things and help our players,” Kiffin said. “It is really neat because they go through so much. Players always have, but now because of social media and every play everywhere, everybody sees every play, our players go through a lot. Remember, they’re kids and they read all those things that fans, or media are said, ‘They lost the game.’ It’s really challenging when you talk to the kids about how that wears on them.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
