Lane Kiffin Headed To LSU, Leaves Ole Miss Before School's First CFP Appearance, Blaming AD For Decision

A wild four weeks of speculation around the status of Lane Kiffin came to an end Sunday, with the former Ole Miss head coach leaving the Rebels for LSU less than three weeks before the start of the College Football Playoff. 

Two days after leading the Rebels to the school's first CFP berth, Ole Miss officials met with the team early Sunday afternoon and told them Kiffin was leaving for Baton Rouge to replace Brian Kelly, who was officially fired last Wednesday. The players also learned that defensive coordinator Pete Golding would be named the permanent head coach. 

Almost thirty minutes after the meeting, former head coach Lane Kiffin released a statement on social media, saying that the Ole Miss players wanted him to coach them during a CFP run, but AD Keith Carter would not allow it. 

"After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU. I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year's team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team's incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everythng into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern," Kiffin noted. 

"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. Unfortunately, that means Friday's Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels."

It All Ended With Chaos For Kiffin And Ole Miss

Sunday ended one of the wildest coaching pursuits in quite some time, an ordeal that appeared to be getting to Kiffin on Friday afternoon.

Sitting at a post-game press conference following the win over Mississippi State, Kiffin finally opened up about the past few weeks, as rumors swirled regarding his commitment to Ole Miss.

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After six years on the job — Kiffin's longest at any of his stops as a head coach — the opening in Baton Rouge was too good to pass up. There wasn’t much else Ole Miss or Athletic Director Keith Carter could do to keep him in Oxford.

Sunday afternoon, Ole Miss AD Keith Carter announced that Pete Golding would be the new head coach, while also mentioning the reasoning for a decision on Lane Kiffin. 

"Coach Kiffin and I met yesterday, and he informed us that he is accepting the head coaching position at another school," Carter said. "For our program to begin preparing for its future – both the short and long term, he will be stepping away from the team immediately. 

"With this development, we could not be more excited to announce Pete Golding as the next head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels. His tenure will begin immediately as he leads our program in the pursuit of a national title. Today's team meeting was a clear indicator of his ability to galvanize our squad. All of our players and coaches are ecstatic and ready to lock arms for a playoff run.

On Saturday night, Kiffin met with Carter and Chancellor Glenn Boyce to discuss his exit from the program, with the head coach trying to finagle his way into coaching Ole Miss in the CFP. Obviously, the school was not pleased with his push, given that he was leaving abruptly and, perhaps worse, for a rival school. 

All of this led to a contentious conversation between all sides, with Ole Miss repeatedly trying to make the point of how bad this would look for the university. Also, there was a vocal group within the locker room who made it known that having Kiffin on the sideline for playoff games was not the brightest move, given that he was leaving the team before the postseason started. 

This was going to be about whether taking a prestigious job like LSU was going to fill his cup. Kiffin always felt like a short-term rental in Oxford, with one eye firmly set on his next challenge.

In the world of college athletics, especially in this era, Kiffin damn well better make sure he wins immediately in Baton Rouge. Accepting a job like this will lead to national championship expectations that he has now fully embraced.

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Falter, or lose three games next season, and the sharks will be circling just as they did for Kelly. 

"We are thrilled to welcome Coach Kiffin as the next head coach of the LSU Football program," AD Verge Ausberry said. "We shared when we began this search that LSU would secure the best coach in the country and Lane Kiffin is just that. Lane is a proven winner who has thrived in an era of college athletics that requires coaches to adapt and innovate. His passion, creativity and authenticity make him the ideal leader to guide LSU into the future and consistently position us among the sport’s elite.

"I want to welcome Lane and his family to Baton Rouge, and I’d like to thank our search committee, as well as our university and state leadership, for their critical support and counsel throughout this process."

College Football Playoff Run For Ole Miss Without Lane Kiffin

In front of what looked like 15,000 Ole Miss fans on Friday afternoon in Starkville, the regular season came to an end with 11 wins for the Rebels. A first-round CFP game awaits on campus.

Everything Kiffin had a hand in building over the past six years will now try to be finished by a team that watched its head coach walk out the door before a postseason run began.

With Golding taking over, a number of other coaches — not knowing what their futures are after the season — have decided not to bail on the players. 

On the way out the door, Kiffin offered an ultimatum to his assistants: Come with me to Baton Rouge or coach Ole Miss in the playoff. 

After defeating the Bulldogs, Kiffin was asked if he had to make a decision Saturday regarding his future.

"I feel like I got to. Probably not as enjoyable as people think it is. Like Kirby Smart says when he wants to complain about being in the national championship and missing the portal window… there’s no crying from the yacht."

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Yes, he had to — because Ole Miss was not going to deal with this storyline for the next 19 days. There was no reason for the school to feel the need to adhere to Kiffin’s wishes.

Good or bad, Kiffin will have to live with this decision. Anything that’s accomplished by the Rebels from this moment forward is because the players and coaches who remained rallied for each other in the face of adversity.

Every storyline that follows this squad in the buildup to its first-round game will center around them doing it without Kiffin.

There will be books written about this Ole Miss season, but the chapter that tells the story of a Rebels playoff appearance will not include Kiffin.

I didn’t have that one on my 2025 bingo card — and neither did anyone else around college football.