Never in the course of organized sports has anyone been presented a more glorious opportunity to rewrite an inglorious history. Lane Kiffin was handed a computer, a word processing program, even the AI software to help him construct the appropriate language.
Oh, who am I kidding?
He could’ve done it with three words:
“I am staying.“
Had he said this, everything we’ve long supposed about Kiffin‘s lack of commitment, lack of maturity, lack of awareness, lack of grace – all of that would have been wiped away into a Mississippi morning.
No one expected this, of course, and in that sense Kiffin did not disappoint. Of course, he’s going to LSU . Of course he is, because he’s exactly the Lane Kiffin we all knew he was from the time he made his public debut nearly 20 years ago as the presumed boy genius guaranteed to invigorate the faded Raiders brand. He won five out of 20 NFL games.
Look at all the places in the relatively short time since, the jobs he’s bungled and circumstances he’s fumbled, despite his obvious gifts for comprehending and conceiving offensive football excellence. A single year at Tennessee, not even four at USC, then the Kiffin reputation rehabilitation tour that began under Nick Saban at Alabama and continued through escalating head coaching success at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss.
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It could’ve stopped with the Rebels, the squad he transformed into a national championship contender when few thought such a thing possible -- and the university that transformed him into a coveted candidate when few would have believed it. Squeezed between the SEC power to the East, Alabama, and the other to the West, LSU, he made the Rebels into 2025’s best football team in the Deep South.
At Oxford, he could have remained for years and been unchallenged by social media strategists, and bossy boosters. He would’ve owned the town like no one since Faulkner. And he would’ve made more money than he could count.
The road to the top of college football, or at least to the players likely to carry a program there, will be less treacherous at LSU than it has been for him in Mississippi. But that is the only element of the position that will carry less danger.
Kiffin will become LSU’s fourth head coach in 11 years. The Tigers have cycled through coaches more rapidly than some go through a jug of milk, even though they claimed the 2019 national championship along the way.
Kiffin trading his current circumstance for what is regarded as a better job (and possibly a few more dollars) isn’t really the issue, though. It’s about walking away from a team with a genuine chance to compete for a national championship. There's a word for this, and it's perhaps the harshest in all of sports: quitting.
In 2009, Brian, Kelly – you remember him – was excoriated in the public sphere, before social media had genuinely taken hold of the American public, for walking away from an undefeated Cincinnati team that still had a Sugar Bowl to play.
But that was in the day of the BCS Championship Game, when anyone outside of the top two teams simply played the postseason for pride. The Bearcats were the third team in a two-team era, so what BK left behind to become Notre Dame head coach was a televised exhibition game. What Ole Miss is about to enter is a real tournament, with the Rebels potentially one of the prominent seeds in the field.
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It was revealing to see Florida and LSU privately jostling for the right to take Kiffin away from his team. Because a sports organization with true championship aspirations -- with a real appreciation of what it means to build a winning culture -- would not want someone with so wandering an eye.
Does LSU really expect he’s not going to grow restless at some point in the future, begin flirting with possibly the NFL? This is like marrying someone who cheated on a previous spouse and then being surprised it happens to you.
We no longer can consider Kiffin as a serious coach. Might he Ed Orgeron his way to a championship at some point? Possibly. He’s that advanced as an offensive mind, and the talent adjacent to Baton Rouge is abundant, often spectacular.
But no serious coach would walk away from a team in the middle of a championship pursuit. It hasn’t happened in high-profile college sports in more than 35 years, since Bill Frieder inexplicably accepted the Arizona State job and left a Michigan program with better history and better resources.
Actually, it wasn’t his choice to leave immediately. He thought he’d get to coach the Wolverines in March Madness, but that’s when the great Bo Schembechler famously declared, "a Michigan man will coach Michigan". And then he handed over the job to assistant coach Steve Fisher, who had gone to school at Illinois State.
The quote has endured for generations, despite the minor inaccuracy. Because the message still resonates. Coaches always talk to their athletes about putting team goals above personal aspirations. How can any Tiger ever take Kiffin seriously on that essential message?
Kiffin will have his furniture, clothing and family moved to Baton Rouge but no doubt his soul will be left behind in Mississippi.
If he ever had one.
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