Lane Kiffin Takes Shot at Ole Miss With Blunt Tampering Question

No team in college football has had it worse over the last month than LSU. First, Lane Kiffin’s Tigers lost to his former team, Ole Miss, in Oxford, and then on Saturday they fell in overtime at Kentucky.

LSU led 27-24 late, but Kentucky kicked a field goal with 12 seconds left to force overtime. Sam Leavitt scored on a 15-yard run to put LSU ahead, but Kentucky answered with a touchdown. Kenny Minchey then ran in the winning two-point conversion.

LSU is now 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC, and the Tigers haven’t even reached the toughest part of their schedule. They host No. 16 Mississippi State next, then travel to Auburn before back-to-back home games against No. 6 Alabama and former No. 1 Texas. They close the regular season at No. 14 Tennessee and at Arkansas.

Even with Kiffin facing serious pressure to turn things around, he still found time to take a shot at his former team. On Monday, he was asked about Austin Simmons ahead of Missouri’s game against Ole Miss. He joked about whether talking about another team’s player counts as tampering, then took aim at Ole Miss.

"I mean, I guess, is that tampering if I talk about another player in college? I don’t know anymore," Kiffin said. "Is there even really tampering anymore? Speaking of one of those two schools [Ole Miss]. And does it matter if you tamper? Is there actually a penalty?"

Simmons has thrived at Missouri since transferring from Ole Miss, completing 64.8% of his passes for 1,434 yards and 14 touchdowns with one interception. The Tigers are 5-1 and ranked No. 13 in the country.

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Ole Miss was investigated by the NCAA this offseason over the transfer recruitment of linebacker Luke Ferrelli. He first committed to Clemson, then backed out and signed with the Rebels. In January, Dabo Swinney publicly accused Ole Miss coach Pete Golding of contacting Ferrelli too early. Swinney said he warned Golding to stop and that Golding kept communicating with Ferrelli anyway.

Kiffin never named the school or accused it directly, but it’s pretty obvious he was alluding to Ole Miss. It’s also hard to ignore the irony. When Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU, Ole Miss officials worried he would tamper with their players.

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