Lane Kiffin explains his Twitter personality, how it impacts recruiting
In the world of college football, every move is scrutinized, every action put under the microscope. So managing one’s own Twitter account as a college head coach is almost unheard of.
Unless you’re Lane Kiffin.
The Ole Miss coach has quite famously commanded his own account, far away from the wandering eyes and prying fingers of sports information directors that might, uh, tone things down a bit. Kiffin’s account has become a running source of amusement.
Kiffin’s current Twitter banner features a woman writing on a white board with the text “Lane Kiffin tweets too much. He will probably tweet this too.”
And then there are the Kiffin troll jobs, which have ranged from urging Kirby Smart to diet a little better, to trolling Auburn over a recruiting graphic, to trolling Florida after flipping a commitment from the Gators.
But as Kiffin explains it, his being authentic on Twitter has actually opened some doors you might not expect in recruiting.
“I think that there is work Lane Kiffin as you say, then there’s Twitter,” Kiffin said on Marty & McGee. “OK, because I took it. It was not a plan. It’s worked well actually because I go into houses in recruiting and stuff, and that’s really why I kept doing so much of it.”
How exactly does his Twitter account help in recruiting you might ask?
“Because parents go, ‘I feel like we know you,'” Kiffin explained. “You come in and if you don’t have that, they’re just like, ‘Oh we’ve seen you on TV before coaching a game’ versus ‘Hey man, how about that tweet, that is so funny. You’re like my No. 1 follow. When you did this…'”
The entire thing has taken on a life of its own. To the point that Kiffin now has a separate Twitter account for his dog.
And his dog Juice might have an even more popular profile than Kiffin himself.
“Now Juice has, the dog has a Twitter, which the players are mad because Juice has more followers than any of the players have,” Kiffin said. “So now they come and these kids, their parents, they’re like, ‘Where’s Juice, we want to meet Juice.’ Like it’s part of the official visit. Here’s the stadium, here’s the weight room, where’s Juice?”
Wholesome, right?