Lane Kiffin is all over social media after explaining real reason to ditch Ole Miss originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Lane Kiffin had spent six years building a powerhouse football team at Ole Miss. But it took one decision to walk away for all of his hard work to be erased. Now he starts over in Baton Rouge with the LSU Tigers. The third SEC stop as a head coach after previously being at Tennessee.
Advertisement
How Kiffin got to the bayou of Louisiana didn’t come by accident. There were months of negotiations, a tug-of-war as the weeks of the regular season floated away, and no doubt, some sleepless nights in the process. Everything matters more in the Southeastern Conference, including the stark rivalries. One of the most controversial coaches in college football would be stepping into a system with real resources.
Unlike his previous stop, Kiffin would be thrown a roster budget with no real cap. If there was a prospect worth chasing, LSU would be fueling up the jet to make it happen. Between the coaching transitions for both the football and men’s basketball programs, LSU has spent well over $120 million. This includes a $40 million football roster on the books as well.
Kiffin clearly enjoys winning at a high level. So why not stay at Ole Miss and grind it out to be the non-traditional factor? LSU has won two national titles under two different coaches over the past 25 years, setting the expectations sky-high for Kiffin to be great. True as true can be. However, outside of playing the money game, there was one reason why the 51-year-old coach wanted out of Oxford. And it was starting to play a factor in recruiting.
Kiffin took time to express his thoughts for a feature in Vanity Fair. He said the Tigers are playing with what he calls “adult money,” compared to Ole Miss, but also sees a better environment.
Advertisement
“Kiffin also seems willing to indirectly invoke Ole Miss’s struggle to distance itself from symbols like the Confederate flag, Colonel Rebel, and the nickname “Ole Miss” itself,” Vanity Fair’s Chris Smith wrote.
MORE:Demond Williams bombshell could have resulted in Lane Kiffin being fired by LSU
“When he was coaching there, Kiffin says, top recruits would tell him, “‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi.’ That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’” (The next day Kiffin added, “I just hope [my comment] comes across respectful to Ole Miss…. There are some things that I’m saying that are factual. They’re not shots.” The population of Baton Rouge is about 51% Black and 36% white; Oxford is about 66% white, 26% Black.).”
Like it or not, shots fired. Kiffin and LSU will travel to Oxford for a Week 3 battle with Ole Miss on Sept. 19. Tickets for the game are already going for thousands of dollars over face value for the homecoming affair.
Advertisement
