Auburn football reporter compares Lane Kiffin to rumored Ole Miss basketball hire

Auburn football reporter Joseph Goodman compared Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin to the rumored head coaching hire for the Rebels basketball program, Chris Beard, in a March 8 tweet on the first night of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament during Ole Miss-South Carolina.

In explaining the comparison in a response tweet, Goodman said that the two coaches both bring baggage to Oxford, though it’s important to note the differences in what the two men have been accused of in the past. Beard was fired from the Texas basketball program for third-degree felony assault charges following an incident with himself and his fiancee, per The Athletic. Kiffin, meanwhile, was found to have made impermissible phone calls to recruits, took visits to a high school with a recruiting intern who wasn’t allowed on recruiting trips, and the famous hostess program where members of the Orange Pride program illegally visited recruits, per AL.com.

Beard has emerged as the top coaching candidate for the vacant Ole Miss head coach role after the Rebels dismissed Kermit Davis on February 24.

After Auburn football hiring of Hugh Freeze, John Cohen would’ve never hired someone like Chris Beard

Those thinking that Auburn wouldn’t be getting the same scrutiny if the basketball program inexplicably replaced Bruce Pearl with Beard — which is something the fringe factions of the Auburn family have pitched during the 2022-23 season — are kidding themselves. Goodman himself may have made the same tweet, and it’s possible it would’ve been filled with even more vitriol.

If John Cohen ever has to make a basketball hire during his tenure as AD, it’s fair to assume he will have learned his lesson about hiring someone with baggage given how the Auburn football hiring of Hugh Freeze was processed and portrayed by the media. Giving Freeze a second chance is one thing, but making a string of controversial hires is what gives one a reputation.