The official Ole Miss football Twitter account likely didn’t understand what they were walking into when they tweeted out a graphic showing that Lane Kiffin had the most Twitter interactions of any college football head coach in 2022. Auburn football fans went about that like a Tiger does to a piece of steak.
Kiffin (two million interactions) surpassed South Carolina’s Shane Beamer (No. 2 with 847,000) and Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire (No. 3 with 538,000) as the No. 1 — with more than the next three coaches combined.
Auburn football fans likely made up more than half of that, though, from welcoming him with open arms when it seemed as though he’d sign up to coach the Tigers to the sharp turn things took when it was announced Kiffin would be sticking in Oxford to coach Ole Miss. They took to Twitter to remind the world that the Rebels head coach is still enemy No. 1, going at him with ferocity not ever seen towards the likes of Nick Saban and Kirby Smart:
WOW he must be doing a great job recruiting
— JLAW (@Jackson_1310) January 14, 2023
Auburn Twitter says YW for our part
— Auburn Sports (@AuburnMan100) January 14, 2023
Hugh Freeze better
— Matt (@mj_brooks21) January 14, 2023
Lol, hysterical. Vibes in Oxford are really, really bad, but at least Lane tweets😂😂😂 https://t.co/LipffYRlCb
— Carter Byrd (@CarterByrd13) January 14, 2023
I don’t think this is a good thing https://t.co/NQG8zmQdZr
— nate🦅 (@jaIensquirts) January 14, 2023
HANG THE BANNER https://t.co/cPPzWz19X6
— AU_Propaganda (@AuPropaganda) January 14, 2023
Twitter interactions>recruiting https://t.co/EgoS2u7PhW
— Aubie’s son🦅 (@AubieSon) January 14, 2023
Why Lane Kiffin didn’t land with Auburn football
Lane Kiffin ended up making an annual $9 million salary over the next eight years, though it’s likely Auburn’s boosters would’ve ponied up if they had the chance. So, why didn’t Lane Kiffin end up on the Plains?
Well, for one, Carnell “Cadillac” Williams was being kept around as an associate head coach no matter who was going to be hired as head coach. Being that Kiffin is about the Lane Kiffin brand perhaps more than anything else — as evidenced by this illustrious honor Ole Miss shared of him spending so much time on Twitter trolling Auburn fans — he likely didn’t like the idea of his potential replacement being right there as someone he was forced to keep on staff.
Another reason is that he may know he won’t get the same autonomy he’s gotten in Oxford. AU is a different beast when it comes to needing booster alignment, and Hugh Freeze is perfect because he came in with no leverage given his own transgressions while at Ole Miss.
We’ll see who ends up better off this fall.