Lane Kiffin Takes Aim at Auburn's Hugh Freeze for Trying 'to Steal' Ole Miss Staff

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has had a rough go of it lately, and Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is piling on.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze has been a frequent target of criticism after his team started 2-2. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

With Hurricane Helene bearing down on the south east, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze must feel he's already stepped into the eye of the storm.

Already mired in quarterback purgatory, amid damaging defeats and social media crossfire, it's currently putting Freeze seriously under the gun.

Now, even when he extends an olive branch - it snaps in his hand.

In truth, perhaps the biggest mistake Freeze made during Wednesday's SEC Coaches Teleconference was to stray into the minefield of how college football is adjusting to the complex NIL era.

So yesterday, and with some liberal amounts of naivety, Freeze attempted to pat the often combustible Kiffin and his Rebels program on the back - big mistake.

"I think in the new world, that's become harder and harder to do and you're constantly searching ways with this new way of transferring and NIL to figure out exactly how to do it," Freeze said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference. "I think there's some who are doing it well, if you look at like Ole Miss and Missouri, I think they've done some really good things it looks like and trying to use NIL to their advantage, and they've been able to maintain a winning edge." 

On another day, maybe even after a better cup of coffee, the comment Freeze dropped might have drifted over Kiffin without touching such a raw nerve. Not on this Wednesday though, undoubtedly something rubbed the Ole Miss boss up the wrong way, and in grand style.

Of course, Kiffin snapped back over what he perceives as the attempts Freeze makes to poach staff from his ascending program.

"That is nice of Coach Freeze to complement our management of our collective, " Kiffin fired back at the embattled Auburn head coach. "I'm sure he'll try to steal Walker Jones like he's tried all of our coaches also."

Kiffin specifically referenced Walker Jones, the executive who is the director of the Grove Collective - that's the department which manages the Rebels NIL side of things.

Get the picture now?

Scratch at the surface a little more and we maybe get to the root of Kiffin's beef with Freeze. After all, both offensive coordinator Derrick Nix and current offensive line coach Jake Thornton both jumped ship from the Rebels to join Auburn since Freeze took over on the Plains.

Kiffin clearly is rattling his sabre toward Freeze, backing him off his staff further down the road might indeed be heartfelt on his part.

As far as the fans of the Tigers and Rebels are concerned, they're probably wishing the programs faced off this year, alas, no.

Big college football tends to bring the spoilt child out in most everyone, especially head coaches with bruised egos.