Former Knoxville mayor trolls Lane Kiffin over criticisms of Ole Miss fans leaving early

Former Knoxville mayor Tim Burchett had some bones to pick with Lane Kiffin over his comments regarding Ole Miss fans taking off from games early.

Evidently, Burchett still has a little salt in the wound from Kiffin leaving Tennessee while he the mayor of Knoxville.

“It’s odd that Kiffin is worried about fans leaving at halftime. I recall him leaving Tennessee in the middle of the night,” tweeted Burchett.

Ouch. Tennessee faithful haven’t forgot what Kiffin did to them, as it was never more evident than last season’s golf ball debacle as Ole Miss came to town. While Kiffin may have put it behind him and simply has fun with it nowadays, it’s obvious Burchett represents the way a pretty big group of Volunteers fans still feel about him.

Nevertheless, Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss have their focus on Kentucky this weekend, an SEC showdown with huge implications. As for the Tennessee trash talk, it’ll be some time before Kiffin is forced to revisit that situation.

Lane Kiffin calls Ole Miss ‘a work in progress’ after 4-0 start

Meanwhile, few could complain about their college football team starting the season 4-0. As of today, only 21 teams in the nation can say their team is undefeated. Still, Lane Kiffin has been fairly vocal that he wants to see more from his Ole Miss squad. As great as they are as the country’s No. 14 team, Kiffin thinks they still have a ways to go.

Kiffin spoke about the Rebel’s progress during his press conference on Monday. He says so many changes before the season and challenges that have come up during it have left Ole Miss in a position where a lot of work still needs to be done before they get where they want to be.

“I mean we just play whoever’s on the schedule, especially early in the year. We got a lot to still work out,” said Kiffin. “A lot of guys missed last week injury-wise that hopefully will be back this week. We’re still figuring things out with a lot of new players, new coaches. So we’re a work in progress.”

The Rebels have posted a Top-25 offense and defense thus far in 2022. While the QB spot is still in the works, their rushing attack has helped them average 41 points per game. As impressive as that is, their defense has allowed an average of just 10 points per game.

Still, Kiffin sees room for improvement. Kiffin is actually counting on them getting better throughout the season. That’s because it says a lot about how good Ole Miss can be if this is who they are without their ducks in a row yet.

“My hope is we continue to improve, maybe more than some other teams, because we didn’t have many returners. We have so many new people and coaches to the program that hopefully we improve throughout the year more than you normally would,” Kiffin said.