Lane Kiffin goes nuclear after Brent Venables called Oklahoma "the better team" in Ole Miss loss

Before we get into what Lane Kiffin said, first we must know what Brent Venables said to even prompt Kiffin's response. 

"Unfortunately we have to learn from some really tough mistakes," Oklahoma's head coach said in the wake of his team's 34-26 loss to Ole Miss on Saturday. "Hate that for our guys. Felt like we were the better team, but at the end of the day it's a game of performance and executing, and I thought they out-executed us when it mattered the most."

It's worth noting here that Venables said this during his coaches' show, a 1-on-1 interview with Sooner radio voice Toby Rowland. Typically, when a coach's comment makes the rounds, it's in a press conference or the weekly SEC teleconference, with multiple media outlets disseminating his quotes. The coaches' show is usually not covered at the same level. Usually.

This time, however, the clip made its way to Oxford in time for Kiffin to be asked for his respond. And, boy, did he respond.

"That's a hot take. I wouldn't have thought that people watching would say that. I felt that, one, we won at their place. We won by eight points, and I felt like we left a lot out there. I think we should've won by a couple scores, so, I don't know how he evaluated that game that they were the better team. Way more yards. Twenty-one first downs to 14. We played, what, 87 plays of offense and they had one sack and didn't force any turnovers. That's an interesting take," Kiffin said.

A reporter jumped in to ask another question when Kiffin, clearly bothered, jumped in. "Maybe they had the better team last year, too, when we beat them," he said.

Kiffin then interrupted the next question again to dive into a history I had forgotten existed. The first game referenced happened more than 20 years ago, when Lane was a lowly 29-year-old wide receivers coach at USC. Note how Kiffin mentioned the scores here, too; clearly, Lane enjoys putting points on Venables's defenses. 

"Maybe he had the better team at Oklahoma when we beat them 55-19 in the national championship. Maybe. Maybe he had the better team at Clemson when we beat them 45-40 in the national championship at Alabama."

The irony here is that Kiffin called it "really disappointing" when the SEC assigned Ole Miss and Oklahoma as annual rivals for at least the next 4-year cycle.  “We don’t have anything in common with them or our fans. So that doesn’t make any sense at all. And so that’s unfortunate with so many great teams that we’ve played for a long time here, especially from our SEC West years. So that’s unfortunate but it is what it is.”

Maybe so. After all, the Sooners and Rebels don't share a border have played just three times historically. But it seems like so long as Kiffin and Venables are in their respective places, there's going to be some heat in the Ole Miss-Oklahoma series.