Lane Kiffin unhappy with Ole Miss' fan support: 'Like a high school game in a college stadium'

OXFORD, Miss. − Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin has alternated between being critical and understanding about the fan experience at Rebels home games this fall.

The No. 11 Rebels (4-0, 0-0 SEC) host No. 8 Kentucky (4-0, 1-0) in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday (11 a.m., ESPN) in a game that's already sold out.

But in the Rebels' first three home games, that's hardly been the case. Average announced attendance has been 59,849, but that's a significant overestimation of how full the 66,176-seat stadium has actually been, especially in the second halves of games when the stadium has seldom even been half-full.

"When you come back out, run out of the tunnel and it looks like a high school game playing in a college stadium, you can't let that affect you," Kiffin said Monday. "There's psychology to that obviously. There's home field advantage for a reason. When it goes the other way, you kind of have that feeling that, 'Man, are we still really playing in a game here?'

"The players have to fight that. We use that as a learning lesson for our guys. If that's the case, that's the case. I'm worried about what I can control. I've tried social media in here for two years. We'll worry about what we can control and that's getting our players ready to play."

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During Saturday's win over Tulsa (announced attendance, 60,641), the student section was virtually empty after halftime; and aside from the seats directly behind the home sideline, most of the rest of the stands were relatively vacant as well.

Kiffin has made jokes about this phenomenon. After the season opener against Troy, he quipped he wouldn't have wanted to stick around to see a team not score any points in the second half. He repeated a similar line following the Tulsa game, saying "When you don't score in the second half of a game, you're not going to criticize the fans."

Despite the lack of in-stadium support, Ole Miss has won all three of its home games and is on a 12-game winning streak at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the longest streak the program has experienced since 1964.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Lane Kiffin compares Ole Miss football crowds to high school games