The rivalry between LSU head coach Brian Kelly and his Ole Miss colleague Lane Kiffin is already simmering.
Their top college teams will face each other in the competitive SEC in October.
2
2
But Kelly, 62, doesn’t want to wait that long and has decided to denounce Kiffin’s latest outburst.
The 49-year-old Ole Miss coach rose to notoriety after he saw a bottle of Coca-Cola on the podium due to a sponsorship deal and opened his press conference with a tirade about sugar.
“Does anyone drink Coke? Do you realize that 130 percent of your sugar needs for the entire day are in that one bottle? 65 grams of sugar,” Kiffin said.
He added that he couldn’t remember the last time he drank a Coke, made a joke about one of the reporters sipping it, and ended his conference.
Kelly decided to poke fun at his rival in his own chat with reporters.
“Just a shout out to our sponsor Coke,” Kelly said as she opened a bottle of Smartwater.
“Smartwater, great Coke product. Minerals, vitamins.
“It’s just great for you. It’s refreshing. Healthy and Coke gives you all the products you need depending on what you like and I love Smartwater.”
Most read in American Football
Most fans found the joke unconvincing and commented on it on social media.
“I’m all for trolling, but this is embarrassing,” said one.
“Trolls are actually supposed to be funny, by the way,” added a second.
“Brian Kelly is weird,” noted a third.
However, some fans took a humorous view of this, with one adding that Kiffen should be commended for having the courage to challenge a sponsor.
“Cook this scammer, BK,” one wrote.
“It’s funny, but it’s good that Kiffen confronted her instead of trying to get a sponsor,” replied a second.
College football top 25 rankings
BELOW are the preseason top 25 rankings of the best college football programs
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Texas
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Notre-Dame
- Penn State
- Michigan
- State of Florida
- Missouri
- Utah
- LSU
- Clemson
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- State of Oklahoma
- State of Kansas
- Miami
- Texas A&M
- Arizona
- Kansas
- USC
- NC State
- Iowa
Kelly and Kiffin have faced each other five times, having also clashed at Notre Dame and USC, respectively.
In the direct comparison, LSU leader Kelly is ahead with 3:2.
And his Tigers are considered favorites to win in October.
Stephen A. Smith was recently involved in a heated college football debate on First Take.
Smith and co-host Molly Qerim were joined on Wednesday’s show by college football analyst Paul Finebaum.
There, Finebaum presented his three best storylines for the season, which is scheduled to begin on August 24.
Finebaum’s first controversial opinion was that “the world of college football today revolves around Georgia, not Alabama.”
Knowing how highly Smith rates Alabama, Finebaum anticipated a negative reaction from his ESPN colleague and asked Qerim to tell her co-anchor to “calm down.”
Of course, this did not stop Smith from being visibly surprised by Finebaum’s subsequent comments and from responding passionately.
