Brian Kelly got his revenge.
After leaving Notre Dame and taking the head coaching job at LSU, Kelly starred in a potential LSU recruit’s TikTok video in January.
After seeing the video, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin took to Twitter to give his thoughts on the video.
“Did you lose a bet or something @CoachBrianKelly ?? This can’t be real,” Kiffin wrote. “Photoshopped? Account hacked?? I mean ….”
Kelly and Kiffin were on opposing sidelines Saturday in their first meeting as SEC head coaches.
Kelly pulled off his first signature win with the Tigers, blowing out the No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels 45-20. LSU found themselves down 17-3 early but outscored Ole Miss 42-3 the rest of the way.
After the game, LSU football tweeted a picture of Brian Kelly next to the word “WIN!” and the tweet quoted Kiffin’s original troll.
The tweet itself used a cross-out, rat and skull and crossbones emoji reference to Nick Saban’s “rat poison” comments about media hype when Kiffin left Alabama for Florida Atlantic in 2017. Kiffin, who went 27-12 over three seasons before taking the job at Ole Miss, has said many times how he likes the imagery of Saban’s statement and how it’s valuable wisdom.
“I just think it’s really good, especially the way he explained it,” Kiffin said back in 2021. “It’s like drinking rat poison. That’s pretty good.”
Kelly and the Tigers owned Kiffin and the Rebels in the second half Saturday, scoring 28 points and stifling the Ole Miss offense. Ole Miss punted twice, turned the ball over on downs twice, and had a drive stopped when the clock hit zeroes.
The loss dropped Ole Miss from the ranks of the undefeated and from No. 7 to No. 12 in the AP Poll while vaulting LSU from unranked to No. 20.