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When it comes to the discussion about college football players allegedly faking injuries during games to alter the pace and slow down momentum, Ole Miss is the first team mentioned. Head coach Lane Kiffin is well aware of the fact that his team is accused of faking injuries more than any other in the country, but he is happy that the SEC is finally doing something about it.

On Friday, the day before Ole Miss traveled to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a memo to programs in the conference telling teams to “play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense.”

The memo wasn’t just a nudge for teams to stop faking injuries, it listed off punishments in the form of fines as well. 

If the National Coordinators deem an injury to be feigned, the first offense will see the head coach of that team receive a public reprimand, along with a $50,000 fine. The second offense will be fined $100,000, and if a third offense occurs, the head coach of that team will be suspended for the next game.

Kiffin’s postgame press conference following Ole Miss’ 63-31 win over Arkansas on Saturday was his first opportunity to publicly discuss the SEC’s announcement, and the head coach explained why he was happy to see the conference step up in this situation.

“I’m glad,” Kiffin explained. “That sounds weird, coming from me. We’re a tempo offense. I’ve been saying this for years. Faking injuries hurts us more than anybody (along with Tennessee) in America. It happens to us more than anybody. It happened last week. Over and over again. It may surprise you, but I was really happy with that. We even released a statement about it.”

As Kiffin noted, Ole Miss released a statement regarding faking injuries one day before the Rebels’ loss at LSU last month. Ole Miss’ statement made it clear that the program had checked the proper boxes to ensure players and staff were conducting themselves properly.

“Feigned injuries has become a notable topic in college football, and we realize our program has been part of that discussion. We have been in communication with the National Coordinator for Football Officiating and provided relevant medical information for his review to answer questions about recent injuries,” Ole Miss’ statement read in part.

While Ole Miss will continue to be the poster program of allegedly faking injuries in college football, Kiffin and the Rebels are certainly saying the right things to avoid even more accusations.