Is Oklahoma Stealing Signals? Brent Venables Calls Lane Kiffin's Comments 'a Weird Kind of Compliment'

It’s hard sometimes to tell if Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is being serious or tugging on someone’s chain.

Even Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has a hard time getting a read on Kiffin.

Such as Monday, when Kiffin intimated that the OU defense is so dominating this season because Venables MIGHT have taught his players how to  intercept the opponents’ offensive signals from the sideline.

“Oh, man,” Venables responded Monday night on his weekly coach’s show. “I guess coming from Lane, I take it as a compliment … ? 

“Like, he must’ve watch our guys be really prepared, you know, because that's who they are, man, they're relentless, their preparation, their detail, the time they spend above and beyond what's required. That's the proof in how we're playing right now.”

Kiffin’s comments from his weekly press conference earlier in the day do seem to be paying Venables and the OU defensive staff high regards while also keeping the door open that there could be just a little impropriety happening between plays.

“This is probably — I don't know this, but it feels like, looking at it — probably, statistically, the best defense we've ever played here,” Kiffin said. “Basically, hardly anyone’s done anything against them.

“ … They've done an amazing job. And (Venables) just somehow gets the information to the guys, and they do a great job of playing plays. They just do things that are very abnormal when they see plays they think are coming and go to take away and go to pick them off.”

On his weekly replay show on Sunday night, Venables paid Kiffin a similar compliment while also calling upon Sooner Nation to stay loud throughout the 11 a.m. kickoff.

“Nobody that we play is more efficient from the sideline to the quarterback than Ole Miss,” Venables said. “Lane has done a fantastic job offensively in what they do structurally, but his on-the-field communication in those last several seconds of headphone communication and the quarterback being able to communicate that to the rest of the offense is a huge reason why they’ve been in so many close games and they’ve been able to make plays when they’ve needed to. So the environment can really impact and affect what they’re trying to do from a communication and play-calling standpoint.”

So maybe a day later, Kiffin was simply returning the compliment to his defensive counterpart when he was asked to expound on his thoughts about Venables and the OU defense knowing what’s coming.

“Well, I think that's two-part,” Kiffin said. “One, it's phenomenal prep — film study of signals. I mean, you know how it is, I’ll just tell you how it is. I think they do a great job of that. So if you study people really well, you know tendencies, and then you have enough confidence as a coach to go after those, that's what (Venables) does. It seems like they've got a really good bead on the plays that are coming when they're called. And they do a great job of going and taking those away.

“You look at the Auburn game, I told Hugh (Freeze) after their game watching it, I mean, ‘You might want to switch your signals. It looks like they have the plays.’ The middle safety's running down to steal slants, which is very abnormal.”

Venables seemed to be a little flattered by Kiffin’s interpretation of OU’s defensive readiness.

“We got enough to worry about just getting our guys lined up with the right call and things of that nature,” Venables said. “But I guess I'll take that as a kind of a weird kind of compliment. Our guys must look pretty good on film.”

Saturday’s game is a top-15 matchup, with both teams coming in 6-1 overall. The No. 8-ranked Rebels were undefeated before dropping Saturday’s 43-35 defeat at Georgia, while No. 14-ranked OU bounced back from its first loss a week earlier to Texas with a 26-7 victory at South Carolina.

Kiffin was asked if changing up the offensive signals was part of the usual routine, and again, it wasn’t clear if he was being serious or not.

“No, we’ll keep our same signals,” he said with a grin as the press conference audience broke out into laughter. “ … That’s a real good question. Competitively, I can’t answer that for you. 

“I’ll do an offseason seminar on that for you.”