Leaving on a jet, lane
by GEORGE SOMERVILLE
Only a few weeks ago, Lane Kiffin told ESPN that he needed Ole Miss more than it needed him.
However, fast forward a few weeks, and those words rang hollow for Ole Miss fans with the news that their beloved Head Coach was heading fast out of Dodge to take up the vacant job at LSU.
But that doesn’t start to describe the chaos that unfolded over this past weekend.
most wanted man in football
In many ways, the dilemma that Lane Kiffin found himself in is the product of the relative lawlessness that college football currently finds itself in.
The 2025 season saw its first Head coach termination after week three, which, even for a sport renowned for its intolerance of a losing record, demonstrates extraordinary impatience to move on from your Head Coach.
And it wasn’t just one Head Coach. A trickle became a flood.
The first SEC coach fired was Sam Pittman in September, following a humiliating loss to Notre Dame. Turns out that the patience of other SEC programs was also at snapping point. Billy Napier, Hugh Freeze, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, Brian Kelly were all relieved of their duties within relatively short order. By halfway through the season, a quarter of SEC programs were without a Head Coach.
I’m not ignoring the dismissal of Mark Stoops, albeit that came after the last game of the regular season.
Which brings us to today.
A record rebel year
Under Kiffin, Ole Miss have had their most sustained period of success. With the Egg Bowl win over arch rivals, and in-state competition, Mississippi State, the Rebels recorded the first 11-win regular season in the University’s history. The Egg Bowl win, aside from In-State bragging rights, ensured that the Ole Miss Rebels would participate in the College Football Playoffs for the first time.
All was good in Oxford.
Except that success put Lane Kiffin directly in the line of sight of those teams searching for a Head Coach. Although, to be fair, this is not unusual territory for the Ole Miss Head coach. In 2023, the other Tigers, this time from Auburn, came calling. Kiffin was enticed by the prospect of reversing the fortunes of the other University in Alabama to its former glory. As it transpired, Kiffin’s children, who had all moved to Oxford to be beside their dad, were not sold on the idea, and Kiffin did not move. But this alerted the Ole Miss administration that Kiffin’s head could be turned.
However, ESPN released a new E60 program, “The Many Faces of Lane Kiffin,” that showed a new side of Kiffin. Kiffin was a changed man. He was sober, had lost weight, had changed his life around and was a yoga disciple. Yoga was a “non-negotiable” for him, Kiffin told me during one of the SEC Head coaches’ calls.
He was settled and happy in Oxford. His family was there, and his brother Chris was a coach on the Ole Miss staff. Kiffin had reconciled with his ex-wife, Layla, who had also moved from California to Oxford.
During the documentary, Kiffin explained that he found the pace of life in Oxford too slow when he arrived. Then he said, “I needed Ole Miss more than Ole Miss needed me”.
Ole Miss fans and, dare I say, the University Administration assumed the Head coach had found the right place to lay his head.
Gator or Tiger Bait?
Despite the nirvana Kiffin enjoyed, he was still a coach in high demand. In fact, Kiffin soon became the hottest coach in football. He was linked to the vacant Head Coach job at the New York Giants to reunite with Jaxson Dart. But the real danger came lurking in the shadows. The Gators and the Tigers were lurking and ready to pounce.
timing is everything
Timing was everything for these teams. With no Head Coaches, they faced the prospect of entering the early signing period window lacking direction. Which recruit would commit to a team without knowing who the Head Coach will be? Both programs were on an expedited timescale.
But it was still the regular season, and Kiffin and the Rebels were heading towards the Playoffs. At one point on Saturday, with Alabama struggling against Auburn, Ole Miss were about to step onto the SEC Championship stage in Atlanta. Surely Kiffin wouldn’t entertain the distraction?
A week earlier, a furious Texas Head Coach, Steve Sarkisian, had used the SEC Head coaches teleconference to put to rest rumours that he was leaving Austin for the NFL. The platform was there for Kiffin to say he wasn’t interested in these other jobs. Kiffin chose not to distance himself from the rumours. In the very same teleconference that Sarkisian had dashed the rumours, every question fielded at Kiffin during his ten-minute slot was about his future. Kiffin danced around them all.
calling’ Baton Rouge
It turns out, per John Talty at CBS, Kiffin was already engaged in talks with both Florida and LSU.
To make matters worse, press reports were out that the Kiffin family had made stops in Gainesville and Baton Rouge to view schools and housing. College football tittle tattle doesn’t need much excuse to take off like a runaway mine train. On this occasion, the Kiffins strapped a jet-propelled engine to the rumour mill.
The Governor of Louisiana – remember, he who got involved in the Kelly termination debacle – wanted Kiffin. This theory has been rebuffed and denied, but some reports suggested he had managed to get involved so much so that the Governor of Mississippi felt so inclined to pick up the phone to Kiffin himself.
The situation was out of control.
It was clear that the Administration at Ole Miss, faced with preparing a team of student athletes for a playoff game, needed to intervene.
Leaving on a jet plane
According to reports later confirmed by Kiffin and Ole Miss Athletic Director, Keith Carter, the pair met. We are not privy to the details of the meeting; however, Carter subsequently issued a post via “X” that a statement on Kiffin’s future would be made after the Egg Bowl game. Saturday had suddenly become a cliff edge.
The moment that this timeline was announced, it became a ticking time bomb for Ole Miss.
All of a sudden, the media was on the Ole Miss campus. People were camped outside the University Chancellor’s house as he, Kiffin and Carter met. ESPN had Marty Smith inside the Ole Miss Athletic Department for what seemed like days, which in reality was a day, but the whole day nonetheless.
And still no news came.
Now, after the event, we know what was brewing, and it turned out to be far messier than we could have imagined.
The messiest of divorces
In all disagreements, arguments and parting of the ways, there are two sides to every story. This is especially true here. In the absence of any formal statement, news began breaking chaotically on Sunday.
Kiffin was leaving. He was going to Baton Rouge. By Saturday night, and in light of no simple statement saying he was staying, this had become obvious. Indeed, ramping up the pressure, LSU boosters had arranged for two private jets to land in Tupelo to pick up Kiffin and his family.
A team meeting at the Ole Miss Athletic facility was scheduled for 10 am on Sunday, but was subsequently moved to 1.00 pm.
having his cake & eating it
The stumbling block was that Kiffin wanted to coach the Ole Miss Rebels through the playoffs. It was his team, and he had brought them this far. He wanted to finish the season.
Except, Keith Carter saw it differently. This was no longer Kiffin’s team. From the moment he said he was moving to Baton Rouge, that ceased to be the case. While TV pundits like Kirk Herbstreit said that Kiffin should be allowed to finish the job, Ole Miss and Carter knew that this was a recipe for disaster.
Letting Kiffin resume his job inside the Manning Centre would continue to allow him access to the players and coaching staff. The same people that he was thinking about taking with him to LSU. Remember, when a Head Coach leaves, the players can enter the transfer portal. This leaves Ole Miss vulnerable, and leaves the fox in the hen house? It would have been a disaster.
So Carter told Kiffin no, and the mercurial Head Coach was on his way.
things get very messy
Except this is where it did get messy. Kiffin was furious leaving the facility. He denied this to Marty Smith in an interview he gave before boarding the jet to Louisiana; however, it has been widely reported that Kiffin told his coaching staff that if they weren’t on the plane that day, their chance was gone. Kiffin says this didn’t happen, but what we do know is that Chris Kiffin, Offensive Co-ordinator Charlie Weiss Jr., and others did get on the plane.
News leaked that Kiffin hadn’t been at the team meeting. Speaking to Marty Smith, Kiffin said this was at Carter’s request. Stories circulated that the Ole Miss leadership council was unhappy with Kiffin’s behaviour and was seeking the coach in his office. CBS John Talty reports that Kiffin refused to answer their questions. Other reports suggest that Kiffin had already left.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss moved swiftly and decisively to replace their now public enemy #1.
Head Coach Pete Golding
Carter announced to the team that defensive co-ordinator Pete Golding would be made the permanent replacement. In a video released by the Athletics Department, this news was greeted enthusiastically by the team.
It was also important timing for four specific reasons. The other SEC teams without Head Coaches had also moved to fill their vacancies. Florida, which had earlier fallen out of the race to secure Kiffin – apparently the family was unimpressed with Gainesville – moved quickly to tie up Tulane’s much sought-after Head Coach, Jon Sumrall, on Sunday.
Alex Golesh, the much-sought-after coach at USF, was also secured by Auburn on Sunday. (This might be the best hire of them all.)
Meanwhile, Arkansas recruited Memphis Head coach Ryan Silverfield. Which meant that by the time Kiffin left Ole Miss, four of the five coaching vacancies had been filled within hours of each other. It was a weekend never before seen across college football, let alone the SEC.
What does the future hold?
So what now?
Well, LSU have their guy. The next weeks will be full of news of Kiffin readying his staff and recruiting a roster to challenge next season.
Go Rebs
Meanwhile, Golding and his Rebels have to prepare for the first playoff game in Ole Miss history.
Whatever the outcome of The Rebels’ season, Kiffin will be criticised or lauded depending on which State you are in. But there will be no Kiffin statue on the University of Mississippi campus. And it’s pretty hard to get one in Baton Rouge unless you are Billy Cannon or Mike the Tiger.
The hard work starts here for Kiffin. It’s win or bust at LSU. Like Brian Kelly before him, Lane will probably get 3 years to deliver. After that, well, it’s anybody’s guess. And remember this – Ed Orgeron won a Natty in Louisiana, he came from Louisiana – he was a Cajun and still got fired the following season.
rolling the dice
Lane Kiffin has rolled the dice, and just now he is playing with house money. But the line of credit in Louisiana expires quickly, so the clock is ticking.
Oh, and one other thing. Next season, Kiffin has a baptism of fire.
LSU plays Ole Miss in Oxford and Tennessee in Neyland Stadium. If he were to pick two schools where he is universally unloved for past behaviour, then those would be the top two locations.
As the man said himself, “get your popcorn ready”……
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.