Lane Kiffin denies viral tweets being shots towards Hugh Freeze

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is never shy to make noise on social media. This offseason has been no exception. After Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze received criticism for playing too much golf this summer, Kiffin poured gasoline on the fire by quote tweeting a picture of Freeze winning a golf tournament and writing, “Great job Coach!! Game is on [fire].”

Kiffin followed up on his post on Sunday by tagging Freeze in a video of a fishing boat’s stern, with numerous fishing lines in the water. Many fans interpreted the post as Kiffin saying Freeze can’t land the “big fish” or recruits. On Monday at the 2025 SEC Kickoff, Lane Kiffin addressed his recent posts about Freeze.

“I like Coach Freeze,” Kiffin said. “I think they think thought that was something to do with, like, I was fishing and it was golfing. That really wasn’t that. I have a thing with him, going back a few years ago, and he like posted a picture in response to me, of some two-pound bass or something like that.

“So I’ve kind of always posted bigger fish pictures back toward him. So it had nothing to do with his golf game, which it sounds like he’s doing amazing at that. So, that’s great for him… And I was fishing yesterday as a dead period, by the way, just making sure that we’re clear on that. People wanna say that fishing is like golfing. It’s dead period.”

In June, AL.com reported that Freeze had played over 20 times during the calendar year. Moreover, Freeze had hit the links 10 times in June alone.

Fans were frustrated when they learned about Freeze’s golf habits, especially since Auburn saw three highly-touted recruits decommit in June. For reference, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer had the second-most recorded scores in June with three.

Meanwhile, some coaches such as Georgia‘s Kirby Smart didn’t appear to be playing any golf. During an appearance on See Ball Get Ball — David Pollack’s podcast — Freeze addressed his golf habits.

“Everybody seems to like to talk about my golf game,” Freeze said. “… I do love golf. I enjoy playing, but what people don’t realize is, I assure you that I never missed a camp day or a recruiting day but if camp got over at 3 o’clock one day, and Jill (Freeze’s wife) and I go out at 4:30, we absolutely might do that.

“I’m not apologizing for that part of it. But my focus is 100% on getting Auburn in that win column this fall. And I do think the biggest thing that’s causing most of it is the recruiting rankings right now, because we’ve been top 10 my two years here in recruiting, and currently we’re not.”