The Ole Miss vs. LSU showdown remained civil for the most part, surprisingly. There was only one theatric that home crowd had planned for Lane Kiffin as a parting gift: Blasting Garth Brooks’ ‘Callin’ Baton Rouge.
It might have been the first time for Kiffin, but LSU also experienced the taunt back in 2022 at Neyland when Tennessee crushed them in a 40-13 blowout.
Yet, Kiffin felt the operations team let the music blare for a bit too long during his teleconference on Wednesday. The subtle pointed remark accused Ole Miss’ game operations of playing music for too long of a time when LSU’s offense was on the field.
Lane Kiffin Questions Ole Miss’s Operations
“Those games happen, and a lot of factors go into that,” Kiffin said in the teleconference per WAFB’s Jacques Doucet, referring to the atmosphere at Ole Miss on Saturday night. “We didn’t protect really well around him [quarterback Sam Leavitt]; the crowd noise and music being played all the way through the snap when the center’s hand is on the ball. Again and again.”
According to Outkick’s Mark Harris, “SEC rules require stadium music to stop once the center touches the ball.”
Harris also pointed out how Kiffin was using the music comment as an excuse to avoid answering the question on Sam Leavitt’s struggles vs. Ole Miss.
Kiffin laid out the accusation when asked about Leavitt’s struggles during the contest, and making a comment about music being played inside the stadium three days after the game ended seems unnecessary. By no means did he pin his team’s loss on the fact that music was being played when his team possessed the football, but Kiffin bringing the topic up opens himself up to criticism,” Harris explains.
Clearly, Kiffin is still trying to squeeze every last drop of drama out of his old rivalry before everyone moves on. College football is already onto the next chapter, but Kiffin just couldn’t resist circling back to it.
Lane Kiffin Continues to Poke Ole Miss, This Time with ‘Super Bowl’ Comment
His last try in the same teleconference was suggesting that the Ole Miss vs. LSU showdown was essentially the Rebels’ ‘Super Bowl.’
“If it wasn’t for the name, Ole Miss, and if it was more of a traditional name that we were playing, we hadn’t coached at before, how would everybody be feeling if, in your third game of your first year of a program, you went to Ohio State and came all the way back?” Kiffin asked during his Wednesday teleconference, per ON3.
“So, I think when you look at it that way and say, OK, man, their Super Bowl, then all the stuff around it, all the energy in the stadium, everything, and we’re right there at the end with multiple chances to win the game. We got to learn from that and finish when we’re in that type of situation again.”
The energy at Vaught-Hemingway was undeniably unlike anything Oxford had seen before, but it wasn’t because of the reason Kiffin tried to spin. It was driven by the raw, lingering fallout of him packing up and leaving the program high and dry on the eve of a playoff run for a bigger payday in Baton Rouge.
He can call it their ‘Super Bowl’ or blame the stadium speakers all he wants, but Kiffin set the stage for this entire circus himself. He just didn’t love the final score.
Lane Kiffin Raises Questions Over Ole Miss’ In-Stadium Music After Win Over LSU