Lane Kiffin ahead of an Oct. 1 game against Kentucky. Oct 1, 2022; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin greets fans as he walks down the Walk of Champions prior to game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
College FootballTwitterBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Ole Miss Rebels coach Lane Kiffin has never been shy about expressing his thoughts, and some of his most notable comments lately have been shots at Texas A&M Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher. In May, Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban kicked things off with comments that the Aggies “bought every player on their team,” and Fisher responded in hilariously over-the-top fashion.  Kiffin chimed in with some defenses of Saban (who he worked for at Alabama from 2014-16) and some mockery of Fisher, and that led to Fisher calling critics “clown acts” (although he didn’t mention either Kiffin or Saban by name).

Well, after Kiffin‘s Rebels beat Fisher‘s “expensive miscalculation” Aggies 31-28 on the road Saturday, this went a little further. After the game, Kiffin (seen at top ahead of an Oct. 1 game against the Kentucky Wildcats) responded to an on-field question from SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic of “With Halloween right around the corner, what are we dressing up as?” with “I don’t know. Maybe Jimbo has a Joker outfit for me.”

In further postgame comments Saturday, Kiffin went in on Fisher a little more, and specifically referenced the “clown” remarks. Here’s Nick Gray of The Clarion-Ledger (based in Jackson, MS) on that:

After the game, Kiffin continued to talk about how he felt about Fisher and when the Texas A&M coach called Kiffin and Alabama coach Nick Saban “clowns” for their comments about the Aggies’ No. 1 recruiting class and its relationship with NIL money.

“I don’t give you coachspeak. That’s real. Most coaches will say no. But that’s real. When someone attacks you personally and calls you and your good buddy coach Saban both clowns, you take that personal. I’m glad we won. I guess I can be a clown for Halloween now.”

Earlier this week, Kiffin mentioned that Ole Miss “got outbid” for defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, who went to College Station after last season, and that it was “a common theme with” Texas A&M.

But the funniest part of this still may be the Taylor Swift connection. Last week, Kiffin expressed his admiration for Swift’s new “Midnights” album on Twitter.

Last Tuesday, Kiffin was asked what his favorite song on the album was, but he initially said he didn’t want to reveal it until after a win. He did eventually reveal it was “Karma,” though, and said he’d explain later:

On Sunday, Kiffin retweeted a comment about the song and Fisher from the @JuiceKiffin account for his dog, and referenced Saban there too:

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time Kiffin has been mentioned together with karma, in both positive and negative ways. (How’d that “Karma is a Butch” spraypaint work out in the end, though, Tennessee?) And this isn’t the first time #karma has come up in college football (which also didn’t end well). At the moment, though, Kiffin’s karma discussion seems focused on Fisher. And on Monday, Kiffin retweeted a USA Today piece from Blake Toppmeyer outlining his feud with Fisher, threw in some clown emojis, and tagged Swift:

So Kiffin seems to be winning this feud for the moment, both on the field and on Twitter. On the latter front, Fisher doesn’t even have a Twitter account. So if he has any musical repartee, we’ll have to find that out through some other avenue.

[Lane Kiffin on Twitter, The Clarion-Ledger; photo from Petre Thomas/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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