ESPN’s Kevin Gemmell had a Q&A with coach Kiffin. Here are some of the highlights:
Now that you’ve had a couple of weeks to digest it all, what are your thoughts on the recruiting class?
Lane Kiffin: I think it was very critical for us to improve our offensive line depth. We were able to get four offensive linemen — including Chad Wheeler as a mid-year who was already here training with us. That was very big. After that, it was very important just to make sure we were adding the best players we could. Not necessarily by position. We didn’t want to reach at all. We wanted to make sure that we did not go below our standards of what we think great players are. And if we didn’t get them all, like you usually don’t, then save whatever we had for next year’s class to balance out the numbers so now we have the ability to sign 18 next year instead of just 15.
You have the No. 1 rated quarterback and the No. 1 rated center (Khaled Holmes). Who is better at what they do?
LK: Oh, that’s a tough question. I think they are very similar guys. Both very smart guys. Very mature. They are No. 1 and No. 2 on our team in GPA. I think that says a lot about them. They both came from the same high school. They are very similar in what they do. They are talented and athletic, but they play above their athleticism because of their football IQ.
Which one has the higher GPA?
LK: Khaled is one and Barkley is two.
Speaking of Matt, is that left tackle spot the marquee position battle to keep an eye on in the spring?
LK: We don’t know exactly how it’s going to work. We’re going to let Kevin Graf and Aundrey Walker, right now our top two tackles, both play right and left and see how it goes early on.
Is Nelson Agholor penciled in at wide receiver, or could we see him somewhere else?LK: He’ll be on offense. We can see him at receiver, No. 1 and then maybe at running back with some of our depth issues there. But he’ll definitely be on offense and potentially in the return games.
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