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Ole Miss

Lane Kiffin gives hilarious backstory to viral video of his assistants celebrating Kentucky win

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•10/03/22
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(Bachman/Getty Images)

Say this about Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin: Few know how to interact with the meme world quite the way the Rebels head coach does. And there was source material aplenty for hilarious memes following his team’s 22-19 win over Kentucky on Saturday.

After Ole Miss jarred a second fumble loose from Kentucky quarterback Will Levis late in the fourth quarter, effectively sealing the win, ESPN’s cameras showed the Rebels’ defensive staff celebrating in the booth.

Defensive coordinator Chris Partridge leaped to his feet, exposing his belly as he bounced around in celebration. The video clip quickly went viral.

Kiffin, normally focused pretty quickly on breaking down game tape and figuring out how his team can improve, went into meme mode once he saw the clip. Harnessing the power of his social media following, he put the call out into the wild.

He relayed the backstory on Monday as only he can, getting other staffers (namely co-offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.) in on the joke via a group text.

“I actually saw that video and it made me smile, so that was really cool to see,” Kiffin explained. “I found a picture of Charlie’s baby, and so he kind of has the same look on his face that Charlie did when he was hugging Partridge, so I sent that to the staff together. It was pretty cool. His son Maverick and Charlie looked exactly alike with their face.”

Viral video of Chris Partridge helps Kiffin rib fellow staffers

If you haven’t seen the video yet, it’s a classic. Sheer joy, as college football seems to provide on the regular.

Check it out below.

The moment — and probably the win, too, to some degree — were enough to snap even Kiffin out of normal work mode following the big win, which sent Ole Miss into the top-10 of the AP Poll this week, checking in at No. 9.

“That was pretty unique. That was really cool,” Kiffin said. “I was excited after the game, but then I kind of always have that after 30 minutes I come back and get mad about what we could have done better and finish the game out on offense and not have to go through all that.”

Kiffin and his staff, meme material achieved, now get back to the task at hand.

Ole Miss is slated to travel to Vanderbilt this weekend for a game that will kick off at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday with a broadcast on the SEC Network.