Lane Kiffin joked on Twitter Sunday afternoon that he told Matt Corral not to worry, he didn’t come close to breaking the SEC’s record for most interceptions in a game.

Kiffin’s late father-in-law, former Florida quarterback John Reaves, still holds that mark, with 9.

It was a light-hearted spin on what was a nightmarish Saturday afternoon for the sophomore quarterback. Corral threw 6 interceptions in a 33-21 loss to Arkansas. Three of those came via a walk-on defensive back. Kiffin stuck with Corral until the bitter, predictable end that saw Corral throw a pick-6 to Grant Morgan to put the game out of reach. Kiffin continuing to leave Corral in likely had to more to do with the game remaining close despite the turnovers more than anything else. John Rhys Plumlee would have probably gotten a shot in a blowout.

But it’s what Kiffin said after the game that is important in terms of the future of the quarterback position. Kiffin stuck by his guy.

“I’ve said this before, but I don’t believe you pull quarterbacks,” Kiffin said. “I think it affects confidence and rhythm. It’s the same guy who had some people saying he was one of the best in the country the last three weeks.”

Barry Odom and the Arkansas defense confused Corral in zone coverages. He telegraphed passes and made life much easier on the Razorbacks’ secondary. Five of Corral’s 6 picks could be attributed to him staring down receivers. It was a tough lesson but it’s worth nothing Corral has less than a full season of starts under his belt (8) and is still fairly young in terms of his maturation as a quarterback. It was a humbling game after Corral’s steep ascent through 3 games.

“This game can be really humbling,” Kiffin said. “You have to be careful reading all of your stuff once you play well. This game will bring you down to earth. When you play well, people study you. Today they read his eyes, played all zone and he stared guys down. That is where the interceptions came. There are really good coaches in this conference. People are going to copy it. When they solve it, you figure out the answers.”

Kiffin’s steadfast confidence in Corral swatted away, at least for now, any questions about a change at the quarterback position for Ole Miss.

Saturday’s home game against Auburn may be the most important start of Corral’s young career. How does he respond from this. Does he let it consume him or break his confidence? Or does he rebound with a strong performance and a win? This upcoming test and how he responds will also be important to the 10 other guys in the huddle around him and their confidence. Every quarterback has bad games, but whether it becomes a rarity or a theme makes all the difference.

Corral watched his film Sunday to relieve the bad. Now he has a week of practice to rectify it.

“I thought he was good, upbeat,” Kiffin said. “(Sunday), I am glad we didn’t practice. He was not good (Sunday) as you would expect. Went through a rough day (Saturday) and embrace the suck. Yesterday sucked. We got to move forward, and you don’t let one game beat you twice.”