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Joel Klatt Doubles Down on Ripping Lane Kiffin for 'Whining' About CFP

Andy Nesbitt

Joel Klatt loves Lane Kiffin, but didn't like the coach's complaints about the College Football Playoff.
Joel Klatt loves Lane Kiffin, but didn't like the coach's complaints about the College Football Playoff. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
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The opening round of the first 12-team College Football Playoff featured four blowouts that led to lots of complaints from fans, media members and coaches. One of those coaches happened to be Lane Kiffin, who blasted the CFP committee with a few frustrated tweets over the weekend.

Fox Sports' Joel Klatt saw those posts from the Ole Miss coach and threw down a social media haymaker when he quote tweeted one with this message: "If your team played half as well as you tweet you would likely be in."

Ole Miss finished 9-3 on the year with losses to Kentucky, LSU and Florida. That late-season loss to the Gators pushed the Rebels out of playoff contention.

Klatt doubled down on his shot at Kiffin during his podcast this week.

"Listen, Lane, if you wanted to be in the playoff you had your chance," Klatt said. "In fact, you were in, my man. You were in the playoff. I love ya but you blew it. You lost a game you shouldn’t have lost so you weren’t in the college playoff and that’s what it is."

He continued with this:

"I just didn’t want to hear the whining. Not going to take it back. Not sorry I tweeted it. Love Lane, love Lane. By the way, part of that was complimentary. He tweets incredible. He’s great for college football. I love that Lane Kiffin is at OIe Miss and I hope he stays in college football for a long time. But this idea that he was going to continue to play these hypothetical games, I get frustrated. The easiest position to argue from is the position of a hypothetical because there’s no proving you wrong"

Here are Klatt's full comments:

Hopefully the quarterfinal games, which will be held on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, are more competitive so we can talk more about the action on the field and less about this silly stuff.

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Andy Nesbitt
ANDY NESBITT

Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.

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