Lane Kiffin: Great Football Mind, Incurable Narcissist.
I know it’s considered sacrilege in these parts to say you lost all respect for former UVa basketball coach Tony Bennett when he suddenly quit on his team.
But I did.
Inexplicably bolting months after signing an extension and then blaming it on the NIL system never rang true. Leaving players you’d recruited just as the season was about to start was unfair to the athletes who came to Virginia because they wanted to be coached by the best.
Which brings us to another team: Ole Miss.
Mississippi’s flagship has been in the news these past six weeks for all the wrong reasons. Instead of a buzz building around two Rebels who ought to be in the Heisman conversation, all of the news has been about Lane Kiffin. College football’s most loathed coach.
Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has the best Cinderella story in college football this year. Plucked out of the portal, Chambliss was a D2 QB for Ferris State last year. When Rebel starter Austin Simmons went down with an ankle injury in game 2 of the season Chambliss heard his number called. If he was rattled coming from a stadium with a 6,200 capacity to one packed with 68,000-plus fans he never showed it. From the moment he stepped on the field he stunned fans with his skills and poise with 18 TDs and three interceptions.
Then there’s running back Kewan Lacy, one of the best in the nation. Not only does he have 1,279 yards and 20 touchdowns, he’s an ferocious blocker.
To win a Heisman, colleges conduct not-so-quiet campaigns, getting national attention on their stars.
That didn’t happen in Oxford Mississippi this year because of the coy antics of fickle coach Lane Kiffin who sucked the air out of the environment. As soon as both Florida and LSU coaching positions came open it was clear that Kiffin was their first choice and he loved the pursuit.
Kiffin, an unrepentant narcissist, refused to make a decision about his future all while sending his family on well-publicized house-hunting expeditions to both Gainesville and Baton Rouge. Yet, despite the noise about their coach, the team kept winning.
The coach pretended to be undecided until the last moment. Shoot, after last Friday’s Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State, Kiffin made a show out of saying he was “praying” on the decision.
Apparently God told Kiffin to screw the Rebels.
On Sunday, with his team 11-1 (only loss was by one score to Georgia) and poised to host a playoff game, Kiffin said he was leaving. It was reported that he told his assistant coaches to get on the plane with him to Baton Rouge or be unemployed.
When he came to Mississippi six years ago, Kiffin said his goal was to win at the “highest level.” Yet, with a national championship in reach, Kiffin created a major distraction and walked out on his team.
“Do you hate him now?” asked a Tennessee fan who’d warned me that it never ends well with Lane Kiffin. (Kiffin famously skedaddled out of Knoxville in 2014 after just one season, leaving the outraged students setting fires all over campus.)
No, I don’t hate Kiffin.
He helped build a winning program at Ole Miss. His idiosyncrasies were endearing - as long as he was OUR coach. His aloofness, rumors about his personal life, his general weirdness was what you got when you hired this offensive genius to run your program.
Ole Miss gave Kiffin everything he wanted. A fat paycheck, full control of the program and the unbridled support of fans who happily clambored aboard the “Lane Train.”
Let’s not forget the team.
You know, those guys who came to Oxford to play for the legendary but quirky coach. The players who were grinding at 5 am in the practice facility, while their coach was at a hot yoga studio. The players who didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with their families this year to prepare for the Friday Egg Bowl. The two stars who should be getting ready to head to New York for the Heisman ceremony but likely won’t be.
Kiffin gobbled up all of the attention in Oxford this fall while he endlessly flirted with what he considered sexier destinations than Ole Miss. Once he took the LSU job Kiffin wanted to come back to Mississippi and coach the playoffs, to slurp up the credit if the Rebs go all the way.
Mississippi’s athletic director, Keith Carter, nixed that. The coach of Ole Miss’ most hated rival (the fans shout “go to hell LSU” after the national anthem, no matter what team is on the field) was not going to spend the next month in the building, poaching players and coaches.
If you’re gone, you’re gone, Kiffin was told.
Kiffin absconded. Took his family and some coaches with him. But left his yellow lab, Juice, the unofficial Ole Miss mascot, behind. The well-bred hunting dog reportedly lives most of the time in a famous Oxford kennel and has a handler.
When the media began to ask what kind of man not only deserts his team, but also his dog, Kiffin reportedly sent someone to retrieve the retriever.
Too late. The entire country got a look at Lane Kiffin this week. And for a man who religiously follows everything written about him, the criticism had to sting:
Ole Miss Players Accuse Lane Kiffin of Lying In His Farewell Statement, The New York Times.
AD Disputes Kiffin’s Version of Exit From Ole Miss, ESPN.
Ole Miss Players Push Back On Lane Kiffin’s Claim That They Asked AD to Let Him Finish Season., Fox News.
Lane Kiffin Is The Biggest Villain In SEC Sports History, AL.com.
Lane Kiffin Must Think We Were Born Yesterday, Mike Lupica New York Daily News.
Lane Kiffin And LSU Deserve Each Other, Defector.
Ole Miss knew what Lane Kiffin was when he was hired. Sadly, they bought the narrative that Oxford had changed his reptilian nature.
Kiffin left his team. He reportedly left his dog.
That’s all you need to know. LSU, you’ve been warned.
