Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss by plane on Sunday after taking the vacant head coaching job at LSU. Kiffin’s dramatic divorce from the Rebels in the midst of their first playoff run is yet another entry in his saga of French exits, including a controversial split from the Crimson Tide in 2016.
After working up the ranks to offensive coordinator at Southern California during the early 2000s, Kiffin first made waves in 2007 after being hired on as the head coach for the floundering Oakland Raiders, fresh off the drafting of generational QB bust JaMarcus Russell. Russell and the Raiders struggled mightily under Kiffin, stumbling to a 4-12 record in the 2007 season. After this terrible first showing, Raiders owner Al Davis pressured Kiffin to resign and finally pulled the trigger to fire the head coach midway through his second season.
Kiffin landed on his feet in the head coach position with the Tennessee Volunteers. In one season as a Vol, Kiffin compiled a 7-6 record, including a near-upset of the eventual national champion, Alabama. His success inspired Tennessee fans that had suffered through years of poor performance, but a job offer from the USC Trojans tempted Kiffin from Knoxville, drawing the ire — and burning mattresses — of the Tennessee loyal.
After finding modest success in four years at Los Angeles, Kiffin was fired on the tarmac after a devastating loss to Arizona State, ending his head coaching tenure at USC as dramatically as it began.
The ex-Trojan found his next job as offensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide in the middle of its legendary dynasty run. Kiffin got the job in 2014 after Michigan poached Alabama’s OC Doug Nussmeier and brought the Crimson Tide offense to new heights. Kiffin’s marked success garnered him a National Championship win in 2015 and a semifinalist bid for the Broyles Award, an honor given to the best collegiate football coordinator and for which current Alabama DC Kane Wommack is in the running.
But Kiffin’s success wouldn’t last forever, and rumors of tension between head coach Nick Saban and Kiffin spread throughout the 2016 regular season. Saban could be seen yelling at Kiffin during the opening drive of the 2016 Peach Bowl, and as reports circled of Kiffin coming to team meetings late, the writing was on the wall for the eventual split.
Kiffin accepted the head coaching gig at Florida Atlantic, mere days before the national championship was set to kick off, but offered to continue coaching for Alabama through the end of the season. Saban rejected that proposal and decided to roll with new OC Steve Sarkisian for the national championship, losing to Clemson 35-31.
“This wasn’t an easy decision and we appreciate the way Lane handled this in terms of doing what is best for our team,” Saban said in a statement. “At the end of the day, both of us wanted to put our players in the best position to be successful.”
While the severity of the split between Saban and Kiffin was unknown at the time, “The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos” by John Talty and Armen Keteyian revealed that Saban was less cordial in private. He reportedly threatened to fire his agent for hiring Kiffin, “that narcissistic prick,” and badmouthed the OC to former assistants.
After serving three years at FAU, Kiffin took the job as head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, joining a squad that had struggled against intense competition in the SEC. In just five years as head coach in Oxford, Kiffin became the third-winningest coach in program history and racked up back-to-back wins in bowl games in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, Kiffin’s Rebels dominated the competition, suffering their lone loss at the hands of a highly-ranked Georgia team, and were poised for their first playoff berth ever.
Major coaching vacancies at both LSU and Florida meant boosters and athletic staff were vying for Kiffin’s services, but a documentary released to ESPN, “E60: The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin,” seemingly reiterated the head coach’s commitment to his underdog Rebels.
Then, on Sunday, Nov. 30, news broke that Lane Kiffin was set to take the job at LSU, reportedly earning an eye-watering $12 million annually on a seven year contract. On Sunday, Kiffin left Oxford before a team meeting where he was scheduled to announce his decision, taking multiple members of the Ole Miss coaching staff with him. He officially acknowledged the move to LSU later that day on his X account.
“After a lot of prayer and time spent with my family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin said. In the statement, he blamed Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter for being unable to coach the Rebels’ playoff run.
The jury is out on if Kiffin will be successful in his new position at LSU, but if the Tigers are to learn any lesson from history, they should be wary of their new head coach’s loyalty to the program.
