Former Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin said all the right things when he talked to ESPN's Marty Smith shortly before hopping on a flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He expressed gratitude to the university and even recognized the predicament that athletic director Keith Carter found himself in during the whole process. Kiffin also denied a report that claimed he told offensive assistants on the Rebels that they better get on the plane with him if they want a job at LSU.
“I guess there's a narrative that there was an ultimatum to coaches or something like that,” Kiffin said on Sunday. “There was nothing. Every coach has their own decision to make and I would never give them ultimatums like that.”
While it is nice to hear Kiffin respectfully address his Ole Miss departure, one interview is not going to convince fans that this was an amicable breakup. Regardless of what he did or did not tell his coaching staff, a large portion of the public believes there is animosity between the new Tigers HC and his former employer.
My interview with @Lane_Kiffin prior to his departure from Oxford to Baton Rouge.
•Why he chose LSU over Ole Miss
•Why he wasn’t in Sunday’s Ole Miss team meeting
•His response to not coaching Ole Miss in the playoff
•Why this took so long
•Peter Carroll’s important msg pic.twitter.com/GfBkE7fnHU— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) December 1, 2025
Kiffin is leaving Ole Miss, a program he built into a College Football Playoff team, for a rival school that is coming off another disappointing campaign. Oxford residents were not going to let this defection slide, and neither was Carter. The AD denied Kiffin's request to coach the Rebels in the CFP, a decision that has produced many strong opinions in the aftermath of this saga.
Some will argue that Ole Miss has an obligation to its players, and that Lane Kiffin has the right to leave Oxford on his own terms after guiding the program through a historic regular season. He helped put the Rebels back on the map and left a massive imprint inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. But one is not guaranteed eternal appreciation. A cold reception was inevitable.
Ole Miss football will now move forward after promoting defensive coordinator Pete Golding to full-time head coach, hopeful that it can remain relevant for the years to come. The team should also prepare to replace much of its offensive staff, as Kiffin sets out to formulate his own vision at LSU.
