Lane Kiffin Calls Texas A&M 'Most Talented 5-3 Team Ever' As His Jimbo Jostling Jams On

If Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher does get fired this season, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin will have to find a new whipping boy.

Fisher is in a season on the brink coming off a 5-7 season last year after a No. 6 preseason ranking. He has also been significantly disappointing since Texas A&M made him the highest paid college football coach in history after the 2017 season at $7.5 million a year. His only season close to earning that kind of money was in the 2020 COVID year when the Aggies went 9-1 and narrowly missed the College Football Playoff.

Other than that season, Fisher has lost fewer than four Southeastern Conference games in a season once when he went 9-4 and 5-3 in the league in his first season in 2018. Given an ultimatum to do significantly better this season and give up the offensive reins to a new offensive coordinator or else, Fisher barely has his head above water so far. Texas A&M is 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the SEC with new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino.

Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin Can't Stop Veiled Shots At Jimbo Fisher

The Aggies play at No. 10 Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1 SEC) on Saturday (Noon, ESPN), and Kiffin has been taking shots at Fisher all week as he has done consistently in the past. He continued firing with gusto Wednesday morning on the weekly SEC teleconference. And he didn't wait for a question.

Just after teleconference moderator Chuck Dunlap asked Kiffin - as he does all coaches - "if he could please take a minute to comment on your team as you enter the Texas A&M game," Kiffin got right to his latest Jimbo jostling.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin talks to quarterback Jaxson Dart during a game this season. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

"Yeah, guys have been good this week preparing," he said, and that concluded comment on his team. "This is a big challenge."

And here it comes.

"This has to be the most talented 5-3 team, not just out there, but ever," Kiffin said.

Wow! Ever? The greatest 5-3 team ever, really?

Interestingly, though, the College Football Rankings came out Tuesday night as selected by a committee of 13 college football experts. And Fisher's Aggies were nowhere to be found, while Kiffin's team landed at No. 10.

Ole Miss' Kiffin Has Won 2 Straight Over Texas A&M

"I mean it really is completely loaded with players everywhere, matchup concerns," he said. "These guys are first in the country in sacks. These are elite players. We're going to have to play really well, be creative, think outside the box to have a chance to beat these guys for the third time in a row."

Nice jab there at the end. Kiffin is 2-0 head-to-head vs. Fisher as Ole Miss' coach. They did not play in Kiffin's first year at Ole Miss in 2020.

Kiffin did not say that the Rebels are a three-point favorite to not only "have a chance," but to win.

"That's a good question," Kiffin said when asked what gets his competitive juices going when A&M appears on the schedule. "Nothing about the Aggies. They've got a great program, do a phenomenal job, obviously, of raising money and getting great players. I don't have any issues with them."

Kiffin took another indirect shot at Fisher's offensive coach abilities when asked what his team's biggest challenge will be Saturday.

"Now with Bobby Petrino added over there creates a bigger challenge than a year ago," he said.

Fisher ran the offense last year without much success. He had coordinated the Aggies' offenses as head coach since taking over in 2018 without much success.

"That's a pretty big challenge," he said.

Then he took another one by including Texas A&M defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin to the conversation. Fisher hired Durkin away from Kiffin for more money after the 2021 season.

"You've got two great coordinators calling plays in Durkin and Petrino," Kiffin said. "With great players, that gives you a pretty good recipe to be really good."

And better than 5-3.