The Southeastern Conference remains on the path toward playing this fall, which in itself is an accomplishment if you just look around the nation to see how other leagues have bungled their decisions, but Lane Kiffin was quick to point out on Thursday that nothing is guaranteed at this point.

Ole Miss has had a rough go of it during training camp this month with many players being unavailable to even practice at times.

One example Kiffin gave during his latest press conference came when he noted that freshman Marc Britt was moved from receiver to defensive back to help the team’s depth in the secondary and was immediately moved into a starting position the next day.

Britt’s ascension up the depth chart wasn’t due to his ability, it was due to the fact the Rebels didn’t have anyone else to put in the lineup.

That’s something Kiffin discussed further during a recent appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” when asked to discuss the protocols the SEC has in place when players test positive for COVID.

“They’re still going back and forth on that. As of now, if you have a contact that they deem this you had too much time within six feet, you’re shut down for 14 days,” Kiffin said. “And so we’re going through that now. We’ll get a test in the back in the morning, and a safety will be down, and then they’ll talk to him and talk to the people around him and shut down two or three more. You got practice in an hour. So, this isn’t 100%.

“We still got a ways to go to get through this because there are some teams right now in the SEC – I heard from two coaches today, that (said) there’s no way they could play if they had a game this week.”

While Kiffin didn’t name the coaches he spoke with, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have all had practices stopped or limited following positive COVID tests which came following the return of students to campuses across the SEC.

That’s certainly not a great sign, but at least the SEC still has 23 days to work through these issues before the season arrives.