Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin Trolls SEC Rival Auburn After March Madness Upset vs. Yale
March 23, 2024
Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin got a sarcastic dig in on the Auburn men's basketball team after the SEC champions fell 78-76 to Yale in a massive NCAA tournament upset on Friday.
By the time Kiffin wished the Auburn team "good luck," the No. 4 seed Tigers had already fallen to the No. 13 seed Bulldogs despite leading for nearly the entire game.
Kiffin had a chance to bolt Ole Miss for Auburn a year ago, but he instead stayed in Oxford on a six-year contract extension.
It's unclear why Kiffin decided to post a spicy remark at the Auburn Tigers, but it is clear that the school was once an archrival of his. Kiffin served as Alabama's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2014 to 2016, and his teams defeated Auburn in each of his three years in Tuscaloosa.
At Ole Miss, the Rebels and Tigers have split four games since Kiffin's arrival in 2020, although Kiffin's teams have won the last two.
Ultimately, Kiffin could have thrown that barb at a host of SEC teams with the conference struggling mightily in this tournament. Through Auburn's loss, SEC schools had gone 1-5 in this tournament, with the lone win courtesy of No. 2 seed Tennessee.
Elsewhere, No. 3 seed Kentucky, No. 6 seed South Carolina, No. 7 seed Florida and No. 8 seed Mississippi State have already lost. Simply put, it's been a rough showing, especially considering that all the losing schools had higher seeds than their opponents.
Ole Miss men's hoops didn't make this year's tournament, but Kiffin's football team is coming off a Peach Bowl win and a No. 9 finish in the polls. The Rebels will look to build off that in 2024 beginning Aug. 31 against Furman.