To most college football coaches, an eerie late-night meeting with the athletic director and two idling jets on a nearby runway would signal the biggest crisis of their career. For Lane Kiffin, however, it is simply the start of the workweek. Following a historic 11-1 season at Ole Miss that included an Egg Bowl win, narrowly missing the SEC Championship Game and the program’s first-ever trip to the College Football Playoff (CFP), Coach Kiffin has decided to leave Oxford, Mississippi, and take the top job at SEC foe Louisiana State University (LSU). Unfortunately for Kiffin, the Ole Miss administration does not want him to finish out the season and playoffs on the Rebels’ sideline. The top brass in Oxford recognizes that any success in the CFP would help the recruiting efforts in Baton Rouge rather than in Oxford.
Kiffin is no stranger to leaving programs behind in dramatic fashion, but his departure from Oxford is unique. As one agent reported to On3Sports, “Only Lane Kiffin would burn a bridge while still trying to stand on it.” It appears that Kiffin was attempting to have his cake and eat it too by demanding to finish coaching the remainder of the season. Kiffin is famous for being a players-first coach, so it is not surprising that he wanted to finish the year out with the players in his locker room, but from the perspective of the Ole Miss administration, coaching the rest of the season is a non-starter. In the age of the transfer portal, Ole Miss wants to minimize the poaching of their roster. Fortunately for Ole Miss, Kiffin can not officially contact players in the transfer portal until Jan. 2; however, the rest of his coaching staff is up for grabs. Following the meeting between Kiffin and Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter, the two parties entered into a bidding frenzy over Kiffin’s offensive staff. Kiffin reportedly told his staff, “If they’re not on the plane to Baton Rouge today, they won’t have a spot.”
Kiffin has a history of changes of employment involving planes, none more infamous than his firing from the University of Southern California (USC). Following a disappointing loss to Arizona State in 2013, Kiffin was fired on the tarmac as the team arrived back in Los Angeles at 3 a.m. Despite coaching under NCAA sanctions that limited the number of scholarships Kiffin could give out, USC fired the young head coach in the middle of the season. This episode became one of the most talked-about firings in college football history, cementing Kiffin’s reputation as the drama queen of college football.
In an era when college football looks more and more like a carousel of talent, with each day, Kiffin’s move is just the latest head coaching change involving schools eager to break through.
Coach Kiffin is one of the preeminent names in college football. Kiffin is the son of the late, legendary defensive coach Monte Kiffin. Monte Kiffin was a legendary defensive mind in football history, running the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ lock-down defense for over a decade. After a stint at Tennessee, the senior Kiffin took a job as Lane Kiffin’s assistant coach at USC. About 15 years later, Lane Kiffin is looking at one of the biggest contracts in college football coaching history.
Kiffin is set to ink a seven-year deal worth $12 million annually with the potential for incentive-based bonuses. This contract will make Kiffin one of the highest-paid coaches in college football history. Kiffin will also be given the keys to the world-famous LSU recruiting machine. In the age of the transfer portal, coaches no longer have to wait multiple years to build up their rosters in order to compete. With the combination of Kiffin’s recruiting acumen, the brand value of LSU and cold hard cash, Kiffin should be able to buy top-tier talent and turn the 7-5 Tigers around very quickly. If Kiffin can not win right away, Tigers fans will want him gone. As evident by the firing of former blockbuster hire Brian Kelly in late October, the four-time national champion Tigers expect championships, and they will not hesitate to fire a big-name coach if their expectations are not met.
What does the hiring of Lane Kiffin at LSU mean for the rest of the college football landscape? As Kiffin boarded a jet to Baton Rouge, he was met with a cloud of boos from fans who adored him—and his top three squad in the SEC—just hours ago. As powerhouse schools line up to pay high schoolers millions of dollars, the expectations of team leaders will grow. Just as in professional sports, colleges will expect nothing short of excellence from their teams. The stakes are higher than ever, but Lane Kiffin is up to the task. The Miscellany News fully expects the LSU Tigers to compete for conference and national championship titles right away.