The college football world is buzzing about the future of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin. With head coaching openings at both LSU and Florida, Kiffin is rumored to be a candidate for both jobs.
Kiffin, who has been at Ole Miss since 2020, has a history of controversial exits from previous positions. From Tennessee to the Oakland Raiders and USC, he has made several high-profile moves in his career. Let’s take a look back at some of his most notable departures.
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Oakland Raiders firing (2008)
Kiffin began his coaching career in the college ranks, with stops at Fresno State and Colorado State before taking a quality control position with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He eventually joined USC as an assistant under Pete Carroll, where he earned a strong reputation as an offensive play-caller. Raiders owner Al Davis eventually took a chance on him, hiring the 31-year-old Kiffin as Oakland’s head coach in January 2007.
At just 31, Kiffin became the youngest head coach in team history. His NFL tenure, however, lasted only 21 months, ending with his firing on Sept. 30, 2008. His time in Oakland was marked by losses and conflicts with the front office.
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Why did the Raiders fire Lane Kiffin?
Kiffin's tenure was definied by his rocky relationship with Davis. Ahead of the 2007 NFL Draft, Kiffin apparently begged Davis to select receiver Calvin Johnson. Davis picked quarterback JaMarcus Russell instead. Russell bombed as a raider and is still widely regarded as one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, Davis reportedly asked Kiffin to resign after his first season in Oakland. Kiffin reportedly refused. The Raiders ultimately denied the report.
Kiffin’s second season as head coach got off to an even worse start. The Raiders went 1-3 in the first four weeks, losing to the Broncos, Bills and Chargers. By mid-September, reports surfaced that Davis was unhappy with Kiffin and planned to fire him soon. On Sept. 30, 2008, Mortensen reported that Davis had fired Kiffin over the phone.
Lane Kiffin record with Raiders
Kiffin finished with a 5-15 overall record in Oakland over his 20 games as a head coach. After Kiffin's firing in 2008, the Raiders finished 4-8 under interim head coach Tom Cable.
Al Davis Lane Kiffin press conference
Shortly after news of Kiffin's firing became public, Davis held a press conference that featured an overhead projector. During the presser, which lasted nearly an hour, Davis went scorched earth on Kiffin, even calling him a "professional liar." Here are some of the most notable things from it, via ESPN:
"I reached a point where I felt that the whole staff were fractionalized, that the best thing to do to get this thing back was to make a change," Davis said during the lengthy news conference. "It hurts because I picked the guy. I picked the wrong guy."
At one point, Davis read a letter that he sent to his former coach that detailed mistakes Kiffin made on and off the field. The owner said he finally fired the coach for cause because he "disgraced" the organization, citing a variety of issues, including conflicts over personnel moves and outright lies to the media, according to Davis.
"I don't think it was any one thing," Davis said. "It was a cumulative thing. I think the pattern just disturbed me."
The presser in its entirety is posted on YouTube, and it's truly a thing to behold:
An NFL arbitrator later upheld Kiffin's firing for cause, which meant the team did not have to pay him the remainder of his salary. He signed a three-year, $6 million deal with the team in 2007.
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Tennessee left in the dust (2010)
Following his short-lived NFL stint, Kiffin returned to college to replace longtime Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer in 2009. Fulmer had brought decades of success to Knoxville, including a national title in 1998.
The Vols finished 7-6 in Kiffin’s only season at the helm before reports emerged that he was set to accept the open USC job, replacing his former boss, Pete Carroll.
Why did Lane Kiffin leave Tennessee?
Kiffin described the USC job as his “dream job.” He had previously spent six seasons with the Trojans from 2001-2006 as an assistant coach under Carroll. For Kiffin, replacing his longtime coaching mentor in Los Angeles was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“I felt like I loved the time at Tennessee,” Kiffin said in the E:60 documentary The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin. “I loved the people there, but I just can’t watch USC for years on TV and say, man, I had that job and I said no. And whether I was right or wrong, that’s just how I felt.”
Lane Kiffin record with Tennessee
Kiffin finished 7-6 in 2009, capped off with a loss to Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. His recruiting class finished eighth nationally, right behind Florida.
Lane Kiffin Tennessee press conference
Hours after news of Kiffin's departure was made public, he held a press conference. During it, he said that USC was likely the "only place" he would have left Tennessee for, and that he's leaving with a lot better team in-place in Knoxville:
"That was my idea only," Kiffin said of the press conference. "(They) said, 'Get out of town, get on a plane, show up at USC and then speak there.' I think both of them backfired, but that’s not the point. You do things in life because they’re the right things to do, whether they work or not."
MORE: Lane Kiffin career timeline
Tennessee students protest Lane Kiffin
Several hundreds of Tennessee students took to the campus streets to protest the news. Via a RockyTop Insider oral history of the night:
“You had some obviously inebriated people. You had some football players that started partaking as well.”
Low: “There are players running around yelling, who had obviously had a few pops somewhere on the strip probably. There’s mostly students, some fans, but mostly students running around.”
James: “It was like a movie. … I don’t know how many people were out there but it was hundreds.”
Walls: “It was like a mob, almost like a riot.”
Exum: “It was like a mini riot. People were definitely out and pissed and screaming.”
Packer: “It was more like a fraternity party gone wild.”
Chants of "F–k you Kiffin" could be heard, and a mattress was inexplicably set on fire.
Lane Kiffin Tennessee golf ball
Kiffin made his first return to Knoxville as a head coach in 2021 during an Ole Miss game in mid-October. The Rebels won 31-26, but Tennessee fans made their presence known.
Following a questionable call that ruled Vols tight end Jacob Warren short on a 4th-and-24, the game was delayed for nearly 20 minutes because fans began throwing objects onto the field in protest — from water bottles to mustard bottles to... A golf ball.
Kiffin was seen picking up the golf ball that hit him and showing it to the official:
Lane Kiffin got hit by a golf ball from the stands in Knoxville pic.twitter.com/ZrNyqCPCRh
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) October 17, 2021
Since leaving Tennessee, Kiffin has had built a history of throwing playful jabs at Vol fans. During a 2015 game against the Vols, when he was Alabama's offensive coordinator, he showed up to the game sporting an orange tie:
Why is @Lane_Kiffin wearing an orange tie before the game????? Are u serious?!?!?!? @finebaum @TimTebow @SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/embMOKgxu9
— The FREAKSHOW (@TheFREAKSHOW256) October 24, 2015
Following Alabama's 49-10 victory over the Vols in 2016, he flipped his visor to some Tennessee fans.
MORE: Meet Lane Kiffin's family, most of which lives in Oxford
USC fires Lane Kiffin on the tarmac (2013)
Kiffin is part of one of the most unforgettable coach firings in college football history. USC relieved him of his duties after a subpar season on the tarmac at the Los Angeles airport in 2013.
Why did Lane Kiffin get fired from USC?
Before Kiffin’s first season in Los Angeles could begin, USC was hit with NCAA sanctions stemming from the Reggie Bush improper benefits investigation. The program received a two-year bowl ban and a 30 scholarship reduction.
Kiffin has since called the sanctions “as close to the death penalty” as you can get. Despite the restrictions, USC went 8-5 in 2010 and improved to 10-2 in 2011. The Trojans slipped to 7-6 in 2012. In 2013, USC started 3-1 but fell 43-22 on the road to Arizona State in Week 5. The 43 points were the most the Sun Devils had ever scored against USC.
"By the end of that season, they had 44 scholarship players available because of NCAA sanctions and injuries," former USC SID Tim Tessalone said via an ESPN oral history of Kiffin's firing. "They were working some magic, and Lane really had a plan on how to deal with the limitations that were very severe -- way more severe than they should've been. But at USC, they don't take excuses."
Lane Kiffin record with USC
Kiffin finished with a 28-15 record over four years with USC. He had just one double-digit season with the Trojans, during USC's 10-2 finish in 2011.
NCAA sanctions against USC
In the wake of the Bush scandal, one which resulted in him having to give back his Heisman Trophy, USC was hit hard with sanctions. The biggest was that USC was without 30 scholarships over three years, just as Kiffin's tenure was set to begin.
"When Pat Haden was hired, he said to me, 'I need you to get us through probation. Do not cheat, do not have any violations.'" Kiffin said via ESPN. "He said, 'I know you're going to lose games, and I know the Coliseum is going to be half-full.... I'm prepared for it. But we need to get off probation.'"
"Even though no one had ever done it before and been successful, there was a kind of arrogance of, 'Oh, we're USC and it'll be fine.'" Kiffin continued. "But I had a major concern that the numbers were taking their toll."
Lane Kiffin tarmac firing
Just hours after the 2013 loss to Arizona State, Haden informed Kiffin he was being dismissed as the team deplaned at LAX. While it was widely reported that the firing happened on the tarmac, the conversation actually took place in an office off the runway.
Despite the blowout loss, Kiffin didn’t believe he would be fired with the team sitting at 3-2. He even tried to make that case to Haden.
“I even said to him, ‘OK, what’s the use of changing now? Even if you want to fire me, let me finish with these players and coach the rest of the year.’ Actually, I think I had him turned to not firing me because I’m reminding him we don’t have 30 scholarship players. He walks out and says, ‘Yeah, I get it, maybe we jumped the gun on this.’ Then he makes a call, comes back in, and says, ‘No, I can’t take this back.’”
But USC’s leadership had already made its decision. Kiffin was fired, and interim coach Ed Orgeron led the Trojans to a 6-2 finish.
Lane Kiffin USC buyout details
According to The Los Angeles Times, USC paid Kiffin $2.7 million dollars in 2014, a year after he was fired. The irony is that former USC AD Haden made $2.9 million that same year.
MORE: Most expensive coaching buyouts in college football history history
Lane Kiffin exit from Alabama (2016)
Kiffin was hired by Nick Saban as Alabama's offensive coordinator in 2014. At the time, Saban was looking to overhaul his offensive scheme, shifting from a ground-and-pound approach to an up-tempo, read-option system.
The move proved to be one of the best of Saban’s career. Alabama won a national title in 2015, and Kiffin coached Tide quarterbacks Blake Sims, Jake Coker and Jalen Hurts.
But Kiffin’s exit from Alabama during the 2016 season wasn’t smooth. In early December, he accepted the head-coaching job at Florida Atlantic while continuing to lead Alabama’s offense as it prepared to face Washington in the Peach Bowl semifinal. The Tide won 24-7, and Kiffin planned to split time between both jobs.
Just a week before Alabama’s national championship game against Clemson, Kiffin announced he would leave the team to focus on FAU.
“Coach and I had spent some time together last night as we were at the office game-planning in Atlanta, and then again this morning, just bouncing some things around. I thought doing both jobs would be easier than it was. But as I looked at it, I re-watched the game a couple times last night and thought, ‘I don’t think we played great.’
“Now, those games happen. We still did some good things — we ran the ball well, didn’t turn it over, and called the game very conservatively because our defense was playing so well. So it wasn’t so much about the game; I was just wondering, ‘Was I always there?’ You’re balancing two jobs — interviewing guys at night and calling recruits at night — and I was just talking to Coach.”
Lane's done at Bama. Pic.twitter.com/tegdPOU0tS
— Andy Staples (@AndyStaples) January 2, 2017
Steve Sarkisian, who was also on Saban’s staff at Alabama at the time, ended up coaching the Tide against Clemson. Alabama lost 35-31 to the Tigers.
Kiffin leaves FAU for Ole Miss
Kiffin's departure from FAU was far less dramatic. In 2017, he helped lead the Owls to a historic 11-3 season, and Conference-USA title. He resigned to accept the Ole Miss job shortly after the Owls' Conference USA title game victory over North Texas.