Getty Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin got his old boss Nick Saban good with a meme of the Alabama head coach from a tense moment from the loss to Tennessee (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Lane Kiffin got his old boss Nick Saban good with a Twitter meme on October 16, a day removed from the 2022 college football season’s most significant upset. Saban’s Crimson Tide lost 52-49 to Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville and subsequently dropped to No. 6 in the polls while the Volunteers vaulted up to No. 3. The Third Saturday in October rivals switched places from Week 7 to Week 8 with the result. With the loss, Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels jumped to first place in the SEC West after a two-touchdown victory over Auburn in Oxford.
Kiffin decided to rub it in Saban’s face as he trolled both the 70-year-old head coach and the Neyland Stadium fans with a photoshopped photo of a mustard bottle — which the Rocky Top faithful famously tossed at Kiffin during an October 16, 2021 matchup between Ole Miss and Tennessee.
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) October 16, 2022
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Kiffin’s Rebels, currently ranked at No. 7 in the AP Poll, take on Alabama at Vaught–Hemingway Stadium on November 12. Before that, Ole Miss takes on LSU in Death Valley on October 22, Texas A&M in College Station on October 29, and has their bye on November 5. The Crimson Tide welcome Mississippi State to Tuscaloosa October 22, have their bye week on the 29, then visit Death Valley themselves on November 5 before Saban battles his former offensive coordinator.
Lane Kiffin, Nick Saban Once Had Yelling Match On Tide’s Sideline
While Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban have a friendly relationship these days — friendly enough for the former to be trolling the latter in the wake of the most devastating loss for the Crimson Tide program since the 2019 Iron Bowl against Auburn — they once butted heads in a big way.
Back in 2016, Kiffin’s final season in Tuscaloosa before becoming a head coach at Florida Atlantic, the two had an argument on the sidelines during a September 10 matchup with Western Kentucky. Per Phil Savage’s book, 4th & Goal Every Day: Alabama’s Relentless Pursuit of Perfection, Kiffin was overheard cursing into his headset sharing the sentiment that ‘dumb players make dumb plays.’ Saban allegedly fired back by saying that ‘dumb offensive coordinators call dumb plays.’
The Crimson Tide coach clarified after the game that it was not an argument, but rather a one-sided chewing out of Kiffin. “There were no arguments,” Saban said after the game, per Cecil Hunt of the Tuscaloosa News. “Those are called a**-chewings.”
Nick Saban Bearish On Crimson Tide Defense After Tennessee Loss
Nick Saban didn’t mince words after the Crimson Tide defense ceded 567 yards of total offense to the Volunteers, 441 of which were generated by Heisman candidate Hendon Hooker, during Tennessee’s first win over Alabama since 2006.
“Very disappointed in the loss,” Saban said during the October 16 post-game presser. “We didn’t answer the bell today. Obviously, there’s a lot of work to be done. Way too many penalties. Gave up explosive plays. Had a major error on special teams that was totally unnecessary and led to a score on their part. You have to give them a lot of credit. They did a nice job with their offense. But we didn’t execute well enough.”
Things won’t get too much easier Week 8 with Will Rogers and the Mississippi State air-raid offense coming to town. With that said, if Alabama can rush 3 against the Bulldogs pass protection, they can replicate Kentucky’s success in pressuring Rogers and avoiding another dissection of their secondary.