Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Lane Kiffin confirms bizarre social media hoax

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Dec 30, 2023 6:57 PM ET

The Ole Miss Rebels resorted to some unusual motivational tactics ahead of Saturday’s Peach Bowl matchup with Penn State.

Prior to the game, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin bumped a post on X that appeared to be from a Penn State fan. The account claimed to have overheard Nittany Lions players calling the Rebel offensive line “soft” and planning to exploit the perceived weakness by going after Ole Miss linemen Jeremy James and Caleb Warren.

Walking through college football HOF in ATL today and heard some of our players talking about how soft the Ole Miss OL has been all week. They told me they’re targeting J. James and C. Warren up the middle all game long. Those poor guys…

— WEARE_PennSt (@WEARE_PENNST23) December 29, 2023

The account in question sent several other disrespectful messages, including one containing a fake quote attributed to Penn State linebacker Kobe King saying that the Nittany Lions were going to “embarrass” Ole Miss. Kiffin reposted all of them.

Suspicious Penn State fans did some digging and discovered that the email address linked to the account was suspiciously similar to that of Fisher Ray, a student assistant on Kiffin’s offensive staff.

Was the whole thing a hoax? Well, yes. Kiffin confirmed as much after the game, explaining that Ray had shown him the account – and the Penn State detective work – on Friday night. Kiffin did not object because he thought it was funny.

Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin just confirmed that the account below was a troll account creates by student assistant Fisher Ray.

Kiffin said he was made aware of this last night and that Ray showed the account to him & how Penn State fans figured it out.

Kiffin thought it was funny. https://t.co/q8ZShiZanw

— Justin Williams (@Williams_Justin) December 30, 2023

Considering how Kiffin has been known to use social media, it’s almost surprising that he wasn’t the one running the account himself. There was no way this was ever going to bother him.

As for the game, Ole Miss took down Penn State, 38-25. Ray’s attempt at reverse motivation probably had nothing to do with it, but he can at least know that he riled up some Nittany Lions fans.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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