Most college football coaches avoid saying much about other programs, but Lane Kiffin doesn’t operate like the typical coach.
While his peers stick to coach-speak when speaking publicly, Kiffin often stirs the pot on social media. He’ll instigate and not-so-subtly troll rivals; even his cover photo is a picture of someone writing “Lane Kiffin tweets too much” on a whiteboard.
Kiffin may have just been sharing an interesting article on Monday, but the Ole Miss head coach probably had another agenda when highlighting a piece about Ohio State.
ESPN’s Jake Trotter wrote about the Buckeyes building a stacked roster in pursuit of a national title. The article’s headline is “Ohio State went all-in this offseason, motivated by Michigan,” but the story displays a different header on X.
Kiffin reposted the social headline, “How Ohio State built a $20 million, ‘national championship or bust’ roster” when linking to the article.
That $20 million isn’t a breaking scoop from ESPN. Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork recently estimated NIL collectives paid Buckeyes football players that much last year.
So maybe Kiffin just enjoyed Trotter’s writing and is impressed by Ohio State’s offseason. After all, one unnamed NFL scout told Trotter that Ohio State has more depth than the 2021 Georgia team that won a national championship and set a record with 15 players drafted the following year.
“Pound for pound, player for player, they have as many good players as any [college football] team that I can remember,” the scout said of Ohio State.
Then again, one of Ohio State’s prized acquisitions came at Kiffin’s expense. Ryan Day’s Buckeyes poached star running back Quinshon Judkins, who tallied 3,006 yards and 34 touchdowns in two seasons with the Rebels.
Perhaps Kiffin is bitter that Ohio State lured Judkins away from Oxford.
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