Lane Kiffin Says All Ole Miss Football Players, Staff Vaccinated Ahead of Season

Lane Kiffin, head football coach at Ole Miss, recently said that all of the team's players and staff members are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kiffin told ESPN that the Ole Miss football team has a 100 percent vaccination rate among those who made it to the practice field on Sunday, ahead of the team's regular season, which will begin on September 6.

"It's pretty amazing and great motivation for our fans and the state," Kiffin told ESPN while speaking about the team's vaccination rate.

According to ESPN, Kiffin said that the team was not nearly close to a 100 percent vaccination rate at the start of the summer but noted that players have encouraged each other to get vaccinated so they can avoid forfeiting games during the upcoming season.

"Nobody wants to be in a position to forfeit games," Kiffin told ESPN.

Despite Kiffin's recent announcement, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that Mississippi is one of the many states that have less than 50 percent of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kiffin's comments come shortly after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced that six of the conference's 14 teams had vaccinated at least 80 percent of its players and staff.

"That number needs to grow, and grow rapidly," Sankey said during an SEC media day on July 20. "We have learned how to manage through a COVID environment, but we do not yet have control of a COVID environment."

According to Sankey, SEC teams that reach an 85 percent vaccination threshold will not be required to undergo regular testing for COVID-19. Sankey also brought up the possibility of teams having to forfeit games if players test positive for COVID-19.

"You hope not to have disruption, but 'Hope is not a plan' is the great cliche," Sankey said in July. "We still have roster minimums that exist, just like last year. What I've identified for consideration among our membership is we remove those roster minimums and you're expected to play as scheduled. That means your team needs to be healthy to compete, and if not, that game won't be rescheduled. And thus, to dispose of the game, the 'forfeit' word comes up at this point."

In addition to Ole Miss, several other college football teams have also reported their vaccination rates, such as the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Georgia's Kirby Smart recently said that the football team is "above 90 percent" vaccinated against COVID while Alabama's Nick Saban said in July that the team is "pretty close to 90 percent maybe of our players who have gotten the vaccine."

Newsweek reached out to Ole Miss for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.