Key Points:
- Lane Kiffin responded to Brent Venables’ claim that Oklahoma was the “better team” after losing.
- Ole Miss climbed to No. 4 nationally, marking Kiffin’s highest ranking since joining the Rebels.
- Both Ole Miss and Oklahoma remain playoff contenders, facing challenging schedules to close the regular season.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is on top of the college football world ahead of Week 11.
His Rebels (8-1) are now at No. 7 of the AP Top 25 rankings, but has reached their highest ranking of his six-year tenure at No. 4 in Weeks 6 and 7. This is the program’s highest since reaching No. 3 in 2015. In addition to his team looking like a lock for the College Football Playoff, Kiffin appears to be due for a massive payday. Now, whether or not that is from Ole Miss or the likes of Florida or LSU is a mystery that likely won’t be solved until the season is over.
However, even with everything in the world seemingly going his way, Kiffin appears to be holding a grudge against No. 11 Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables. Following Ole Miss’ 34-26 Week 9 win over the Sooners, Venables told the media that he felt his Oklahoma team was “the better team” despite losing. This comment led to Kiffin firing off a backhanded comment of his own, calling Venables’ opinion a “hot take.”
“That’s a hot take, they had the better team,” Kiffin said. “I wouldn’t have thought people watching would say that. I felt that, for one, we won at their place…We won by eight points, and I think we left a lot out there. I think we should’ve won by a couple scores. I don’t know how he evaluated that game that they were the better team.”
While most assumed the tiff would have stopped there, Venables was named CBS Sports’ Head Coach of the Week for the SEC after the team’s 33-27 win over No. 14 Tennessee on the road.
An honor that led to Kiffin not only congratulating him on X, but tagging him.
“Congrats @CoachVenables,” wrote Kiffin.
What’s next for Ole Miss and Oklahoma?
With the first official College Football Playoff rankings coming out on Tuesday, we will see if the committee agrees with Kiffin’s assessment. The Rebels are 5-1 in SEC play, which has them behind Georgia, Alabama and Texas A&M. While it seems unlikely they’ll get a chance to play for the SEC title game barring a slip-up from one of the aforementioned teams, they still have two top 15 wins on their resume. They will finish the year with meetings against The Citadel, Florida and Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
As for Oklahoma, it has three ranked wins this season, but does have a brutal stretch to end the year. The Sooners finish the season against No. 4 Alabama, No. 19 Missouri and against LSU. According to ESPN’s FPI, they rank No. 6 in college football in remaining strength of schedule, so if they win out it’d be hard to keep them out.
With that being said, one more loss on the season and their playoff hopes could be gone. It’d be truly a spectacle to see these teams face off again in the playoffs, but they likely both are a bit preoccupied with the rest of their respective seasons.