Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has been known to try and ruffle Alabama football and Nick Saban’s feathers since his tenure as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator ended in January of 2017. He’s made clear his respect for the coach he has said is the greatest of all time, but continues to look for any advantage when the Rebels face Saban’s Tide.

On Sunday, Kiffin was speaking to reporters about his team’s Saturday win over Georgia Tech, when he was asked about the challenge of facing Kevin Steele’s defense. Kiffin didn’t answer that question directly, but did

“We’ve been against Kevin a number of time,” Kiffin said. “Worked with him at Alabama, then played against him at Auburn and LSU. But it seems like there’s been a change there. I don’t know what happened after the Texas game.”

Kiffin’s theory? Instead of Steele calling the defense, it’s cornerbacks coach Travaris Robinson.

Robinson was South Carolina’s defensive coordinator from 2016 until 2020. He joined the Crimson Tide in 2022.

“Our guys watching the TV copy schematical in this last game, it certainly seems like T-Rob’s now calling the defense,” Kiffin said. “We played him before at South Carolina, so we’re preparing accordingly, you know, for him calling the defense. He’s done a good job too. And they’ve got really good players.”

Alabama’s defense did struggle in the Texas game, getting beat over the top by Longhorn quarterback Quinn Ewers, who the Crimson Tide couldn’t get enough pressure to. On his weekly TV show following that loss, Saban did allude to some behind the scenes changes being made.

However, he didn’t outright call it a change in leadership.

“Kevin is one of my favorite people in the world, really good person,” Saban said. “Really good guy. He’s been with us before so he knows a lot of what we try to do and we’re all making a transition to try to help him do what he needs to do to be a great part of the program here, which he’s been a tremendous asset (to) for many, many years.”

Kiffin surely isn’t ignorant to the fact that Saban’s first press conference of the week is Monday. In fact, Sunday’s availability was the first of its kind this season, Ole Miss hadn’t held one like it until this week, with the final time being sent to reporters with a Zoom link on Sunday.

Evidently, Kiffin had something he wanted to say. And after the quote got out, he retweeted it.