Lane Kiffin responds to Kirby Smart comeback on Father’s Day tweet

Lane Kiffin’s tweets are back on center stage. The Ole Miss football coach responded to Georgia football coach Kirby Smart’s jab from the SEC Network’s Marty and McGee show on Saturday. Kiffin and Smart were both assistants at Alabama under Nick Saban from 2014-2015.

“Is it spelled whippings?” asked Kiffin in his quote tweet on the SEC Network’s clip.

Is it spelled whippings ? @KirbySmartUGA https://t.co/ocIyqe8wBR

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) August 21, 2021

The tweet referenced Smart’s joke about Kiffin’s jealousy while at Alabama. Smart claimed that his rival and friend uses Twitter for reaction and for entertainment.

Background on comment

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart joined the SEC Network’s Marty and McGee on Saturday where Smith asked him about the legendary Lane Kiffin Father’s Day tweet showing Alabama head coach Nick Saban holding Smart.

“I’ll give Lane this: He didn’t post that unwarranted,” Smart said. “I mean we have a legendary side thread that goes on between Lane and I. He sent that on the side thread long before he posted it on Twitter. I know he does it for reaction and for entertainment.”

Kiffin previously revealed that he was in a group chat with Smart, former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt and former South Carolina coach Will Muschamp.

Next, Smart gave a little insight into his time at Alabama with Kiffin.

“We spent several years together there at Alabama, and that’s another one of his ways of taking a shot back at me because you know he used to get whippings when we were there. I didn’t get the same whippings he got, so he’s trying to get his jabs back.”

Smart was the Alabama defensive backs coach in 2007 and the defensive coordinator from 2007-2015. Kiffin overlapped with him there for two years as the Alabama offensive coordinator from 2014-2016.

Smart left Alabama on his own accord to take the head coaching job at Georgia, while Kiffin famously parted ways with Alabama before they played for the national championship in 2016.

Recent Kiffin tweets

A few weeks ago, Kiffin used his account to complain about former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik’s SEC run game rankings.

Chizik ranked five SEC running back rooms but omitted Ole Miss. Kiffin took issue.

“But yet OleMiss led the SEC in rushing last year,” Kiffin tweeted.

Just prior to his run game complaint, when FC Barcelona announced international soccer star Lionel Messi would not return to the club, Kiffin made Messi a Twitter offer to come kick in Oxford using his favorite recruiting hashtag, #ComeToTheSip.

Kiffin needed a kicker, and saw a potential match made in heaven.