Deuce Alexander spent most of ten minutes Tuesday afternoon doing what every Ole Miss player has done this week — pushing the story back toward the field. Then somebody asked him directly what he thought of the way Lane Kiffin left, and for about fifteen seconds the Rebels’ No. 1 receiver said the quiet part out loud.
“I mean, everybody got their reasons for doing things, but it was a little like icky. Like nobody — like we was all in a dark place. Like we didn’t know what was going on. Just one day, just like they say, he gone. So it just — I never really understood or like really knew what happened.”
He did not linger on it. “But I mean, at the end of the day, it is what it is. We here now. We got Coach PG. He doing a great job. Yeah, we just ready.”
That is the most direct thing any Ole Miss player has said about December, and it is worth noting what it actually was: not anger, not a shot, just a twenty-something describing a building where nobody could tell him what was happening. We didn’t know what was going on. That is the part that stuck.
LSU came after him in January. He stayed.
Alexander confirmed something that had been rumored all offseason — that LSU tried to get him into the transfer portal after the staff change.
“Yeah, it was a little bit of that,” he said. “But, you know, I stayed home because I love Oxford. It’s home.”
Nine words, and they explain more about this roster than any press conference has all week. The guys on the other sideline Saturday are the guys who called him. He said no.
He was asked whether he had watched Kiffin’s Monday press conference. He had not — and had not known it happened. “Nah, I didn’t even see — I didn’t even know he said anything or went on a press conference. I try to block all that out and just keep my focus, because if I let it get in my head, then it might be in the back of my mind. I just want to have a clear mind, just stay focused.”
On Kiffin himself, there was no edge at all. “Kiffin, yeah, that’s my guy. He’s still my guy. It’s just a great head coach. You can’t hold nothing against him. But yeah, it’s no bad blood. We all still cool.” The same went for the players who left: “There’s no bad blood with them. I still love them. They’re still my guys. But at the end of the day, they’re on the other side. So business got to get taken care of, and after we can be friends.”
The scouting report is more than film
Asked how much the familiarity changes the preparation, Alexander gave the most tactically interesting answer of the session — twice.
First, on the game plan: “Some things got to change. Everything can’t be the same with the same game plan as last year, because they’re going to know it. They’re going to be able to pick up on things.”
Then, on what they are actually studying: “We got to scout them. We got to know how they play, their techniques, how they act off the field, like how they respond to certain situations.”
How they respond to certain situations. That is an advantage you only get from having lived in the same building. It cuts both ways Saturday, and both staffs know it.
He has seen enough of LSU’s first two games to recognize the furniture. “It’s some plays I see on there, like, I know the play. Like the play when he scored, I knew exactly the play call, the motion. So yeah, it’s similar. They didn’t change much, but they have a few tweaks just like we do.”
“It’s gonna be a bloodbath”
On the matchup between the Ole Miss receivers and an LSU secondary that has allowed 12.0 points a game through two weeks, Alexander was blunt and cheerful about it.
“It’s gonna be a great matchup. They got great guys. We got great guys. Just going into practice, just work on techniques and things that they’re gonna do, just watching a lot of tape. But it’s gonna be a great matchup. It’s gonna be a bloodbath.”
Being the guy
Alexander was asked how he has handled being perceived as the No. 1 receiver, and the answer included the most specific football detail he gave all day — a live example of the job.
“Last game, it was a read I was supposed to make that I didn’t make, and me and Trinidad had to get on the same page on the sideline. And next drive we had a completion.”
He talks through coverages and looks with Trinidad Chambliss on the sideline every series. “It’s on me now. Just go out there, just believe in my work, believe in my preparation, just believing in what my OC’s saying … knowing like other guys are watching me. So I just got to go out there and do the right thing all the time. Can’t have a bad attitude or anything like that.”
He is bringing the room with him. On Caleb Cunningham, who got his best run of the season against Charlotte: “Just keeping him under my wing, because we’re going to need him at some point in the season, if not now.” On Johntay Cook II: “Just telling him to stay patient. Everything not coming to him right now, but it will eventually.” He put Horatio Fields, Trey and Cook on his own level as leaders — “it’s not just one guy taking off and then the other guys is behind. It’s just everybody with each other.”
“They call me small, but I play big”
Somebody asked how many times the receiver room had watched the clip of Alexander putting a Charlotte defender on the ground. It turns out it was not just a highlight — it was a coaching point.
“It was definitely an emphasis in film, just setting the tone and being dominant. A lot of people on the outside, inside, everywhere, they call me small, but I play big. So there’s just an emphasis to go out there, no matter your size, just be a dog and be who you are.”
One other thing worth filing away for a man whose top-end speed keeps coming up: he wanted to run indoor track this year and it never came together. “I’ve never met any of the track guys, but they do practice in the indoor and I kind of watch them a little bit just to see who’s moving, who’s not, see if I can go out there, feel like I can compete with them. Seeing them every day, it just makes me miss it a little bit.”
Saturday
He has been hearing about this game since the spring. “Fans been talking about this since the offseason. Every time they see me, it’s the only game they bring up, circling everybody’s calendar.”
The biggest rivalry game he has played in to this point was Mississippi State in Oxford, or a Wake Forest–NC State game earlier in his career. Saturday, he thinks, clears all of it: “This might be like the biggest game in like years, like past, future.”
And the instruction he is giving himself about the building: feed off it, do not chase it. “When we see a crowd, all the students talking trash to the other team, that gets us excited, gets us pumped up to go. But at the same time, we can’t let it get too, too much for us. Like, dang, this is a big game, I gotta go out here and do this and do that. Nah — the mindset is just go out there and play your game. You don’t gotta do nothing different. Good plays will come to you.”
No. 8 Ole Miss hosts No. 7 LSU on Saturday, September 19 at 6:30 p.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The game is on ABC, and ESPN’s College GameDay is in Oxford.
Quotes from Deuce Alexander’s LSU preview press conference, Tuesday, September 15, 2026. Photo: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.