Lane Kiffin accepted his third SEC head-coaching job in 17 years when he agreed to leave Ole Miss for LSU at the end of the regular season in November.
Eight months later, Kiffin admitted he would have done things differently if granted a redo. Kiffin said he would have hit the exit when Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter told him he couldn’t stick around to coach the team when he already had agreed to leave for LSU.
“I wish I would have gone in when I met with Keith and said, ‘I’ve made the decision to go,'” Kiffin said. “I wish I would have just said, ‘Hey, I’d like to coach the team,’ and he’d say, ‘No.’ And I’d say, ‘Hey, OK, I appreciate it.’ Move on [and] never even discussed it again.”
Ole Miss was 11-1 in the regular season and booked a spot in the College Football Playoff as Kiffin weighed offers from two other SEC programs — LSU and Florida. He met with Carter following the Rebels’ rivalry game with Mississippi State before his decision became public along with Kiffin’s claim he was fighting to coach Ole Miss in the CFP.
Kiffin won’t have to wait all that long to see several of his former players and coaches. LSU visits Ole Miss on Sept. 19 for a matchup of Kiffin and his former top assistant, Pete Golding. The Rebels’ defensive coordinator was promoted to head coach upon Kiffin’s departure for Baton Rouge.
Congress included language in its proposed college sports regulatory legislation for a “Lane Kiffin Rule” within the Protect College Sports Act.
On Thursday, Kiffin said he didn’t know about it because “I don’t read anything” and has given up social media.
“Like, you just said that, and I didn’t know that until you said it,” Kiffin claimed. “You know, I guess in that I hope that some way for future coaches they’re not put in that situation. You know, the NFL, you’re never put in that situation because of the calendar and because of the rules of movement within seasons.
“I do hope for future people that’s fixed so that you’re not in that same predicament for players, for coaches, which really was a player issue, too. Then we fixed that with moving the portal date back. That was more of an issue earlier in the postseason, too, as you saw players having to leave teams to get into the portal during the season. Hopefully some way they fix it for coaches, too.”
Kiffin, who served as Alabama offensive coordinator and was head coach at Tennessee, feels he ultimately made the right call to replace Brian Kelly at LSU. His mistake? Expecting everyone to appreciate or understand it.
“I made a challenging decision in change,” Kiffin said. “I think as I look back to that, I thought I could find a way for everybody to understand. Now as I look back later on, that was never going to happen.”
