Lane Kiffin can’t resist taking a jab, but his latest shot at Ole Miss—one he quickly deleted—drew a candid response from his successor. During his Wednesday presser, Pete Golding addressed queries about the controversial move with a candid reply.

“I really don’t. I mean, obviously I’ve got kids, right, and we’ve got people that work here and all, so things get brought up, or somebody will send me a text message, and so you definitely see certain things, but I’m not good enough at this job to be on that all damn day and do this job,” Golding said.

“I don’t know how they do it. More power to them. I’ll learn one day, but there’s enough things in the building that I need to do at a high level. But yeah, I definitely see some of it based on what gets sent to me.”

Golding’s carefree attitude toward the LSU head coach is nothing new. Golding had downplayed the long-term impact of Kiffin’s departure, stating that “one person, one player” is not enough to derail a correctly built team and that players “don’t give a damn” who runs them out of the tunnel as long as there is a plan in place.

He even bluntly remarked that the timing “couldn’t happen at a better time” for the players because the culture and expectations had been established before Kiffin left.

Kiffin’s jab at Ole Miss followed a heated LSU-Ole Miss baseball game. The incident occurred during Game 2 of the three-game baseball series. Videos circulated showing a fan in an LSU jersey, later identified as 52-year-old Alton Bloodworth, punching an unidentified male in the student section at Swayze Field.

Kiffin shared his thoughts on the viral incident via a tweet. “One thing you of all people know, Matt, is LSU fans aren’t gonna EVER lose a fight to Ole Miss fans ever. #FAFO,” he wrote on April 13. Adding to that, LSU fan Matt Bowers wrote, “I’m gonna guess if people travel to Oxford looking for trouble they will find it that day.”

Kiffin deleted his post shortly after, but it was too late, as several sports outlets and social media accounts had already picked up the interaction. But this is not the first time Kiffin has jabbed at Ole Miss with a “tweet-and-delete” post.

In February, on X, he took a swipe at Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin regarding attendance figures after LSU defeated the Rebels, but later deleted the post.

Although Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss didn’t catch the team off guard, the move was unpredictable for Golding.

Ole Miss coach expresses how he felt when Kiffin left

“I still couldn’t get a real feel, because I was with him the whole time,” Golding said to Greg McElroy in an appearance on ESPN’s Always College Football podcast. “It was like, ‘Hey, Tuesday I’m going to Florida. Wednesday I’m going to LSU. Thursday I’m staying.’ I still didn’t have a real feel.”

Golding was with Kiffin “the whole time” following the 2025 Egg Bowl. But on Saturday night, Ole Miss AD Keith Carter called him to give him some news. “Saturday night I got the call from Keith saying, ‘Kiff has decided to go elsewhere. Let’s meet at 7:30 (Sunday morning),” Golding said.

Following his move to Baton Rouge, Kiffin raided his former program, bringing key staff members like offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and strength coach Nick Savage, along with players like Princewill Umanmielen. Meanwhile, Golding also hired staff from LSU and put all his attention into pushing the Rebels toward a title run in 2026. With both coaches now reloading their rosters for 2026, their next on-field meeting is shaping up to be a must-see SEC showdown.