When Nick Saban met Lane Kiffin for the customary pregame chat between opposing coaches, genuine smiles could be seen emerging from behind both men’s face masks.

Kiffin even drew a laugh from Saban earlier in the week, calling him “elderly” in reference to a quip about how he’d run circles around the Alabama head coach if the two were to line up against each other as players.

Saban smiled briefly again when the pair shook hands following Alabama’s 63-48 shootout win Saturday night. But this time, it was an expression more of respect than humor.

“Lane’s a good coach,” Saban said afterward. “They had a great plan.”

In the much-anticipated matchup between Saban and Kiffin, Ole Miss aggravated its coach’s former boss in the most striking way possible — by sticking, blow-for-blow, with the No. 2 team in FBS for the better part of four quarters.

We’re used to fireworks when these two get together, but this was like the 4th of July.

Ole Miss and Bama combined for 1,370 yards of offense, the most in any SEC game. Ever.

The score was tied on 5 separate occasions. The Rebels’ 48 points are the most against Alabama by an unranked team since the Associated Press began releasing its weekly poll in 1936.

Ole Miss entered Saturday as more than a 3-touchdown underdog.

Crimson Tide quarterback Mac Jones continued his monumental first season as the starter with 417 yards on 28-of-32 passing. Ole Miss revelation Matt Corral wasn’t far behind, finishing 21-for-28 for 365 yards.

Man-child running back Najee Harris hung a career-high 206 yards on the Rebels defense and found the end zone 5 times.

The 14,419 they let into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will still be catching their breath when they log in for work Monday morning.

On a day when 2 ranked SEC teams were upset and a 3rd could have been, Alabama ultimately emerged unscathed in the Kiffin-Saban Rat Poison Ripped Jeans Butt-Chewing Bowl presented by the Stetson Bennett IV DUI law firm — the Tide will see the upstart Georgia quarterback next week in a matchup of College Football Playoff contenders.

But a young Tide defense has some obvious holes to fill.

“Maybe a game like this will wake us up a little bit,” Saban told ESPN after Saturday’s contest. Later, he told reporters via Zoom “we struggled (on defense). We didn’t do anything well.”

Those with Hotty Toddy as part of their verbal lexicon, meanwhile, should be excited. Kiffin is at least 2 years away from stockpiling his roster with elite talent, especially in the trenches. There’s plenty of junior college talent right in his new backyard, and he already has a stud quarterback in Corral.

Favorite targets Elijah Moore and Kenny Yeboah are absolute studs, too.

Kiffin said he told Saban after the game, “I thought they played defense in the SEC.”

Kiffin brings a swagger that can set him and Ole Miss apart on the recruiting trail. From his #ComeToTheSip hashtag to apparel featuring the vulgar acronym “LFG,” he stands in stark contrast to most of his SEC brethren.

Even the ones who are also Saban proteges, and with whom Kiffin engages in a regular group text: Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt and Florida’s Will Muschamp.

Kiffin and Saban’s relationship has been described as contentious or, at the very least, complicated. An awkward conclusion to Kiffin’s 3 years as OC has given way to a series of jabs, usually via social media, from mentee to mentor.

But Saban also showed Kiffin what a championship culture looks like — even if it meant ripping him a new one on live television and, according to Kiffin, pretty much every other day of the week. After controversial and largely unsuccessful stints with the Oakland Raiders, USC and Tennessee, Kiffin needed the lesson.

Kiffin says he wouldn’t be a Power 5 head coach if he hadn’t spent 2014-16 under Saban’s fiefdom.

And in return, Saban got an elite offensive mind who helped Alabama’s offense evolve.

We saw a culmination of Kiffin’s experience, knowledge and antagonistic persistence Saturday. His game plan had the Tide’s defense off balance, and Corral found open receivers all night.

Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses even surmised Kiffin had the Crimson Tide’s defensive signals decoded, given his time in Tuscaloosa. Saban wondered aloud if that was the case, too.

“It seemed like everything we did, they had an answer for,” Saban said.

Not until Alabama wideout DeVonta Smith’s jet sweep touchdown run with 3 minutes, 16 seconds left could Tide fans stop squirming. Ole Miss and Bama had traded scores on 10 straight possessions before Mississippi had to settle for a field goal with 7 minutes to go.

“We scored every time we needed to score,” Saban said, “and we took the air out of it at the end of the game.”

Shenanigans like Kiffin’s references to Saban’s reference to media hype as “rat poison” for players and posting a tweet of the old-school coach in a photoshopped pair of ripped jeans makes for good social theater. On ESPN’s College GameDay Saturday morning, Kiffin playfully referred to their relationship as “like an ex.”

But it’s even more fun, apparently, when these two match wits on the gridiron itself.