LSU coach Lane Kiffin has continued to generate widespread discourse over his contentious move from Ole Miss last year, just before the Rebels embarked on a historic College Football Playoff journey. Kiffin was the talk of college football for weeks as the issue of his future distracted from the Rebels’ impressive regular season.
The tension between Kiffin and his former employer has continued to escalate during the offseason as the LSU coach has openly addressed his high-profile departure for a fellow SEC program.
Urban Meyer Proposes a Fix for Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Exit
During Wednesday’s segment of the “Triple Option” podcast, former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer detailed his fix for Kiffin’s controversial exit from Oxford for Baton Rouge last year.
“I gotta say this about Lane Kiffin, is that if he was a bad coach, they’d say, ‘See you later.’ There are breakups all the time, some are bad when you’re not good when you leave,” Meyer said. “The problem is, I wish they would fix this. I don’t believe this is complicated. There’s no contact made until well after the season, you can’t do that. That’s an easy fix.
“There’s a handful of people that are not held accountable in all of this and that’s the athletic directors and presidents of universities. I would somehow in this new legislation, I would make it be part of it that they’re hands off until after the season is over. The one at Ole Miss, I don’t think that’s ever been done before.”
In one of the most highly anticipated matchups in the SEC and college football next season, Kiffin will lead his Tigers to the Vaught-Hemingway to face coach Pete Golding’s Rebels on Sept. 19 in what promises to be a raucous atmosphere.
What Lane Kiffin Would Change About Leaving Ole Miss
During Wednesday’s segment of the “Pardon My Take” podcast, Kiffin explained how he would have handled his messy Ole Miss exit for Baton Rouge differently if he had the chance.
“I think I would have just came in and said, okay, I’m leaving,” Kiffin said. “I’m very appreciative of everything. You know, I spent a lot of time right there fighting to coach the team, trying to keep everything together.
“Totally respect their decision … but I was trying so hard to keep that together, like, hey, let us all coach, let this whole thing, you know, let’s see if we can go win the whole thing. And so, obviously, that didn’t happen that way.”
Kiffin, who had led the Rebels to the verge of College Football Playoff qualification when his LSU move went through, was denied a chance to coach Ole Miss during the showcase event by athletic director Keith Carter, who instead promoted Pete Golding to the head coaching position.
Read More: ‘You Broke Up With the Girl’: ESPN Analyst Blasts Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Obsession
