On Monday December 1st, Lane Kiffin was announced as the next head football coach at LSU. In his introductory press conference, many things were said about Kiffin’s heavily scrutinized exit. Ole Miss is beginning to clarify the record in the wake of those comments.
In that press conference Kiffin spoke of the abruptness of the decision and a last-ditch effort to coach the Rebels in the playoff despite plans to leave. There were claims of fans attempting to run his vehicle off the road to prevent him from leaving. Even a claim that players wanted him to coach the playoff game(s). All of those mentions by Kiffin are being refuted by Ole Miss officials and players.
Kiffin’s LSU press conference was an interesting display attempting to diffuse and humanize the situation. Kiffin painted a picture of what he wanted to do but not permitted to. Seemingly suggesting he had every intention of seeing it through to the end with Ole Miss, and with the blessing of the players.
Ole Miss challenges many of Kiffin's claims
According to Fox Sports, Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter as well as players, and the Mississippi Highway Patrol are challenging those claims. "There's been a lot of things he said publicly that I’m not sure are totally accurate," Carter said smiling Wednesday during an appearance on a Supertalk Mississippi.
Kiffin posted on social media that he had hoped to coach the Rebels through the college football playoff and claimed the players wanted him to stay. "My request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance," Kiffin wrote.
Kiffin was under the impression there would be no issue with him coaching the playoff run despite a desire to leave, until he was told otherwise in a morning meeting on Sunday. However, Carter said on Mornings with Richard Cross of Supertalk Mississippi, Kiffin and his representatives were informed “several weeks ago” that he will not coach in the post season if he plans to leave Mississippi.
"I see him finding out at 8:30 on Sunday morning for the very first time that he would not be coaching the playoff is not accurate," Carter said. "And it was sounding like he was going to take all the offensive staff with him," Carter added. "So, there was a lot of discussion around that. But I think begging for him to stay is certainly an overstatement."
As for the sentiment of the players, Linebacker Suntarine Perkins posted on social media that Kiffin’s post on Sunday did not match what he said in the meeting with players. “Everybody that was in there can vouch on this,” Perkins said.
One of Kiffin’s claims that helped paint the picture of a coach just trying to do the best he can on the way out was the claim of he and his son almost getting run off the road by fans en route to the airport. Considering that claim came after the viral video of fans screaming obscenities from the tarmac, it would have been an easy enough story to believe. That is until the Mississippi Highway Patrol entered the conversation.
The story suggests that Kiffin and son Knox drove to the airport unassisted and faced certain fan-initiated peril. The issue with that is Kiffin and his passengers were escorted to the airport by the Mississippi Highway Patrol and they reported no incidents.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell posted a video on the DPS official platform to refute Kiffin’s road rage claim. "Contrary to any rumor or any other allegations, there's been no incidents where our highway patrol state troopers were involved in any sort of accident trying to run coach Kiffin off the road when he was leaving Oxford last weekend. He had a safe trip and he's on his way."
There has been no official response from Kiffin regarding the Ole Miss pushback on his press conference claims. While this back and forth has been conducted mostly in the court of public opinion, there is also no telling how far this will go or if this week is the end of it. Regardless, Carter’s almost “bless his heart” tonal response to Kiffin’s claims might be the most southern, gentlemanly way to address comments deemed to be “untrue”.
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