Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin hilariously called out Oregon's Dan Lanning and no one seemed to understand why
Lane Kiffin is quite the interesting animal when it comes to social media sometimes. Ole Miss and college football fans around the country understand this by now. However, when Lane Kiffin hilariously called out Dan Lanning (Oregon head coach) with a post this week, nobody seemed to quite understand why it was so funny.To be […]
Lane Kiffin is quite the interesting animal when it comes to social media sometimes. Ole Miss and college football fans around the country understand this by now. However, when Lane Kiffin hilariously called out Dan Lanning (Oregon head coach) with a post this week, nobody seemed to quite understand why it was so funny.
To be fair, Kiffin's complete lack of any explanation and the cryptic, random nature of the post being made at all was a bit confusing on the surface, but once you understand the full dynamics, it makes sense. And of course, it's quite funny when we piece everything together.
In case you missed it, on Tuesday this week, Lane Kiffin posted a video of Ryan Rakowski, a state champion QB recruit from Palos Verdes, CA. And rather than saying anything at all Kiffin just tagged Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning.
Why?
First off, this requires a bit of speculation as it wasn't confirmed by Kiffin himself, but it adds up.
In short, Lane Kiffin seemed to be poking fun at Dan Lanning's inability to recruit from his own back yard (the west coast), by essentially saying, "Here, you go Lanning. I found a west coast QB for you since you can’t seem to recruit the good west coast passers well enough to land any…Oh, and I’m probably going to take this one too.”
Allow me to explain. This isn't likely supposed to be some big time serious jab at Dan Lanning. It's likely just some friendly fun between two friends who worked together at Alabama back in 2015 (when Lanning was a GA and Kiffin was the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban). However, it is a funny nod towards the fact that Dan Lanning has struggled with traditional quarterback recruiting on the west coast (for the most part).
Lanning and Oregon have done a great job overall recruiting, but it doesn't take too long to realize that he's struggled to land his first choices in the high school ranks. Back in December of 2021 when Lanning first got to Oregon he immediately resorted to the Transfer Portal for his quarterback, reportedly pursuing Jaxson Dart (who landed with Lane Kiffin), Bo Nix (who ended up at Oregon), among a few others.
From there in 2023 he missed out on signing Nico Iamaleava (from California), Malachi Nelson (California), Jaden Rashada (California), Aidan Chiles (California, who chose Oregon State), and Austin Mack (California). Instead he signed Austin Novosad, a mid-tier four star QB from Texas.
In 2024 Lanning obviously brought in Dillon Gabriel and former five star Dante Moore (via UCLA, but from Michigan originally) via the Transfer Portal, but completely ignored the west coast. He did sign a three star QB from Arizona in Luke Moga, but again, failed hard at recruiting anyone from his half of the country with real starting quarterback potential.
This past cycle Lanning finally signed a couple four stars from Hawaii and California at the quarterback position, but they're likely buried on the depth chart behind Dante Moore and Austin Novosad. And now, again for the 2026 cycle it looks like Lanning is going to completely whiff on the top west coast quarterbacks (if not the class entirely).
So, what does Lane Kiffin do? He tries to "help" his buddy out by sending him a video (very publicly) of a top west coast QB prospect in the 2027 recruiting class (via his Ryan Rakowski post on X). The hilarious part? Ole Miss offered Ryan Rakowski over two years ago and Lane Kiffin knows he's the favorite to land him for the Rebels' 2027 recruiting class.
This is essentially a slightly more adult way of saying "na-na na-na boo-boo" to Dan Lanning in front of the entire college football world.
It's apparently not enough that Lane Kiffin got Jaxson Dart (a Dan Lanning target from years ago), or landed Pierce Clarkson (another former west coast QB who could have "gone home" this cycle) this offseason. No, Lane Kiffin had to rub it in that he's about to steal yet another potential QB target that Lanning could have offered long ago. The only recent big-time QB recruit Kiffin can't taunt Lanning with is the Rebels 2025 starter in Austin Simmons who is originally from Florida.
This whole thing may seem like a bit of a stretch, but don't put it past Lane Kiffin. This kind of funny, unserious, petty offseason stuff is what makes Kiffin so fun to follow. Let's just hope Ole Miss fans have plenty to laugh about this fall when the games kick off too.
Lane Kiffin says Ole Miss is already benefitting from less 'name brand' transfer portal additions
The Ole Miss Rebels were on the cusp of making the College Football Playoff last season with a roster largely reliant on key transfer portal additions. Though they fell short, Lane Kiffin built one of the stronger teams in the nation and he'll see his program well represented in the 2025 NFL Draft next month. […]
We'll be back with more Ole Miss Rebels coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
If you want to see why head coach Lane Kiffin seems to be excited about the possibility of Ryan Rakowski playing quarterback for the Ole Miss Rebels just check out his sophomore season highlights in the video below!
