Lane Kiffin Responded To A Twitter Report He Was Leaving Ole Miss For Auburn: ‘That’s News To Me’

It is rivalry week in college football, which also coincides with the start of the silly season in terms of coaching rumors as searches will begin in earnest once the regular season comes to a close on Saturday night.

On Monday night, the two collided when a report from a local TV sports reporter in Starkville, Mississippi (home to Mississippi State) reported that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin would be stepping down from the Rebels after the Egg Bowl on Friday night to take the Auburn job. Auburn’s interest in Kiffin has been well-reported, but it was curious that this particular reporter would have this news while none of the other major college football newsbreakers (or Auburn reporters) would have it.

Thankfully, because Lane Kiffin is college football’s most online head coach, we got a swift response as he had a little fun with fans, first posting a picture of him reading a book about Egg Bowl history.

He then addressed the report itself, quote tweeting the reporter and saying it was “news to me” and shooting down his sources.

Now, Kiffin doesn’t offer any firm assurances he won’t leave Ole Miss at all (as he knows better than to do that at this point) but seems to make it clear that there won’t be any sudden change on Friday night after the Egg Bowl. Auburn’s coaching search will be fascinating to watch because they definitely want to make a splash, but any incoming coaches will have some questions about who has control over the program. Kiffin is near the top of the wishlist, but for now he’s at Ole Miss and is keeping his focus on the Bulldogs, not the Tigers, for the moment.

UPDATE: Lane wasn’t done, as he took the time to type out a fake report about the reporter leaving for another network, printed it (???), and then took a picture of that to post to Twitter.

It’s truly incredible stuff.