As Saturday wound into Saturday night and early Sunday morning, Lane Kiffin continued to keep the college football world hostage. Kiffin spent all day Saturday, even holding a lengthy meeting on Saturday night with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter, pondering his future.
Ole Miss fans were left in the lurch, anxiously watching for updates out of Oxford all Saturday long. It’s been strange to see Kiffin act this way. He’s been very careful to work on improving himself as a man, father, and football coach. Kiffin deserves a ton of credit for doing so, too.
Lane Kiffin Appears To Love Being Dramatic
But one thing Kiffin appears to have is a flair for the dramatic. During Friday’s coverage of the Egg Bowl, which Ole Miss won 38-19 over Mississippi State, Kiffin was asked at different times about whether he’d made a decision or not. At his postgame press conference, Kiffin inferred that he was going to have a lot to pray and think about in the coming hours.
Late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, SEC Network reporter Marty Smith, who had been camped out at Ole Miss’ athletic facilities all day Saturday, provided a late update that offered some clarity on the Kiffin situation.
Smith posted on X, “Ole Miss sources tell me Lane Kiffin will hold a 9am team meeting Sunday morning, and have an announcement regarding his future afterwards.” That’s 10 a.m. ET, 9 a.m. CT in Oxford. This was later moved to 2 p.m. ET.
This entire process has been one where it seemed that Kiffin, despite what he may claim, didn’t always have the Ole Miss football program front and center. It appeared that Kiffin had one thing in mind: what’s best for Lane Kiffin.
There were even indications, including from Kiffin himself, that a decision on his future with Ole Miss would be made on Saturday. Smith spoke with Kiffin on Friday before the Egg Bowl.
As the hours rolled on, it became clear to many that Kiffin had already made up his mind. He was going to leave Ole Miss and take over the LSU football program, who has been without a permanent head coach after Brian Kelly was fired.
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Late Saturday night, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported the following and posted it on X: “LSU executives and Lane Kiffin’s reps held a call after the Tigers game at OU to continue solidifying the deal with travel plans: The university is sending two planes to Oxford on Sunday for Kiffin, his family & others, sources tell @YahooSports.”
Kiffin Reached Out To Trusted People
LSU has been led by Frank Wilson, who was seeking his third win as the Tigers’ interim head coach on Saturday against Oklahoma. The Sooners ended up winning the game, though. LSU might get a bowl invitation, although that remains to be seen.
Kiffin indicated, too, that he wanted to reach out to two people whom he’s trusted during his career. Those people were Pete Carroll, whom Kiffin worked under as an assistant coach at USC, and Nick Saban, who hired Kiffin to be his offensive coordinator at Alabama.
But when Kiffin started talking with Florida Atlantic about becoming their head coach, Saban fired Kiffin in the 2016 season just before Alabama’s national championship game. Saban wanted Kiffin to focus on the title game.
On Saturday’s “College GameDay” show on ESPN, Saban said, “I think Lane’s decision is going to come down to one thing, and that thing is, where is the place where can I recruit the best players? And I think one of Lane’s apprehensions is, he’s had to use the portal to build his team at Ole Miss each year.
“And at LSU he probably could recruit better talent and then just supplement his team by need with the portal,” Saban said. “And that’s probably the dilemma he has, as well as his loyalty that his team that he’s coaching now, that he wants to be able to continue to coach.”
So, it’s pretty safe to say that Kiffin is about to leave Ole Miss, a program that is on the verge of getting a College Football Playoff spot, for LSU. Kiffin apparently is trying to get Ole Miss to let him coach in the SEC Championship Game.
No SEC Title Game For Kiffin, Ole Miss
A mitigating factor in that, though, was the result of the Iron Bowl on Saturday night between Alabama and Auburn. Alabama held off Auburn 27-20, earning a spot in the SEC Championship Game. So, that option for Kiffin is now out.
ESPN college football reporter Pete Thamel added context to this situation in a post on X late Saturday night: “Sources: The conclusion of the Iron Bowl is one of the final variables in LSU’s courtship of Lane Kiffin. The delay in finalizing the details of his decision – which increasing appears obvious that he’s heading to LSU – comes with what Ole Miss would decide about him coaching next weekend in SEC title.”
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Thamel added that “both sides want clarity on this game (Iron Bowl) before moving forward, as an Auburn win would give Ole Miss a bid on Atlanta.”
Kiffin has led Ole Miss to an 11-1 season, 7-1 in SEC play, in 2025 and a No. 7 spot in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings that came out last Tuesday night. He’s taken a program that he inherited and turned it into a college football powerhouse.
Kiffin’s Indecisiveness Puts Him In a Bad Light
But Kiffin, obviously, has loftier goals. Going to LSU, with its deep financial pockets and national recruiting prominence, would set Kiffin up for greater success and, hopefully, bring him a national championship. Any college football coach at the highest level of the sport wants a national title. That’s nothing to dog Kiffin about right now.
Yet this entire process — the talking, the decisions, the timing — doesn’t paint Kiffin in a good light. Sure, his supporters and backers will say that he’s just being cautious and careful in making the right decision. But Ole Miss fans, especially late Saturday night, were loudly airing their venom toward Kiffin.
Back on September 24th, ESPN’s E60 series aired a documentary on Kiffin titled “The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin,” looking at his successes and failures as a football coach and human being. That might need to be revised a little bit with Kiffin’s latest behavior.
But this Ole Miss drama will put Lane Kiffin in a bad light once again, whether he stays in Oxford or goes to Baton Rouge.
