Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has never been shy about engaging in hilarious off-field conflict between head coaches. This week was no different.
Ole Miss might be playing Kentucky this weekend, but Mark Stoops was not the focus of one answer to a key question on NIL and stealing talent this week when Lane Kiffin met with the media.
Many media members peppered multipled SEC coaches on Wednesday with questions pertaining to the UNLV and Matthew Sluka situation. Sluka is of course choosing to redshirt and sit out the rest of the year following accusations that UNLV did not live up to their word on NIL and relocation cost offers. UNLV claims that Sluka was not offered any formal NIL agreement and that his representation was demanding further pay.
But when it came time for Lane to answer he gave a rather spicy answer following a question from Mike Griffith of DawgNation. Mike asked Kiffin about NIL and potential safe guards he might suggest be implemented in relation to situations like UNLV and Matthew Sluka. But he also included this little preface on a comment from Auburn head coach, Hugh Freeze:
"Coach [Hugh] Freeze, by the way, paid your program a very nice compliment on your management of NIL."
Lane didn't hesitate to hit on the comment from Hugh Freeze before diving into the answer that Griffith was really looking for:
"Well, that's nice of Coach [Hugh] Freeze to compliment our management of our collective. I'm sure he'll try to steal Walker Jones like he's tried [to with] all of our coaches also."
Lane didn't really have any big ideas when it came to NIL or safeguards for programs and players, but he did clearly have some words for Hugh Freeze. There had been rumblings that Hugh Freeze had tried to steal several Ole Miss coaches away to Auburn this past off-season and clearly Kiffin didn't like that too much. For those unfamiliar with Walker Jones, he's a huge part of the NIL operations for Ole Miss. Kiffin was joking that Freeze might even try and steal him too.
What's really funny about this is that Lane Kiffin's comment wasn't even the first sly (or not-so-sly) jab at Hugh Freeze he made this week. Coach Freeze has notably been throwing his quarterbacks under the bus lately, refusing to carry blame for the poor performance and turnovers of his passers at all. So, of course, Kiffin had some words on that too with how he believes that should be handled (as you can see in the post below).
"I think it pays off when you have relationships and the quarterbacks trust you too...Can go back to Matt Corral when he threw six interceptions. Before I even got to the media sitting down with him telling him, 'You know we've got to do a better job calling plays. I've got to coach better. And don't worry we've got your back.' And so I think that goes a long ways, and goes a long ways with kids in recruiting. Knowing what they're going to get here from a relationship and that they can trust us to have their back."
Lane Kiffin definitely does not have all the answers when it comes to NIL or safeguards there. He went on to talk through how kids often have contracts now, and addressed that it is a flawed system (just like Kirby Smart and many others did) . However, he did make one thing clear. He doesn't think too highly of Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze when it comes to how he deals with stealing talent (especially Lane's).
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