Lane Kiffin has never been afraid to mix things up, but now he’s going to have to do so out of necessity.

The Ole Miss coach revealed during the weekly SEC coaches teleconference that, due to a lack of depth because of COVID-19, 3 offensive players will be transitioning to defense on Saturday vs. visiting Auburn.

One of those players is freshman Marc Britt, who is sliding over from wide receiver to safety. Kiffin isn’t making public the other 2 players.

The situation eerily reminds Kiffin of his early days as a head coach.

“We’re just trying to make the best of the situation…I guess I kind of had something like this with the sanctions at USC…limited roster. It’s very challenging,” Kiffin said in a quote transcribed by 247Sports. “It affects you most when your numbers are low in general. It affects you most on defense because that’s where you really substitute more players throughout a game than on offense.”

The Ole Miss defense is definitely in need of a spark. The unit is ranked last nationally in points allowed per game (47.0). On the bright side, Ole Miss did allow a season-low 33 points in their loss at Arkansas.

We’ll have to see what effect these 3 players have, but at this point there’s definitely nothing to lose with this experiment.