By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
On this Christmas Day and throughout the holiday season, there is no doubt that new LSU football coach Lane Kiffin will think of his father, Monte Kiffin, who died on July 11, 2024, at age 84.
Kiffin has often channeled his dad since his passing, particularly as he made a recent life decision to leave Ole Miss to become LSU’s coach.
One in particular was during Kiffin’s last game week press conference as Ole Miss head coach on Nov. 24.
There were a few polite “no comments” and a couple terse ones that day by Kiffin concerning his immediate future as he likely knew then he wasn’t staying at Ole Miss.
By then Kiffin had already met covertly “somewhere in Mississippi” with LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry and told Ausberry he was coming, but he wasn’t all the way there yet. He was trying to figure out how he could convince Ole Miss to let him still coach Ole Miss in the upcoming playoffs after taking the LSU job.
That second part didn’t happen, even though Ole Miss has allowed several of Kiffin’s offensive assistants who have followed him to LSU to continue to coach the Rebels in the CFP, including offensive coordinator and play caller Charlie Weis, Jr.
At this press conference, the question in the air was still, “Would Kiffin be staying or going to LSU?” That wasn’t asked directly, but there were several skillful attempts at finessing the purple and gold Elephant in the Room.
Only one worked at eliciting a long and thoughtful response from one of the more articulate football coaches you will ever meet. The question worked because it was bigger picture. And Kiffin actually dropped a clue about what he would soon do and say exactly one week later in Tiger Stadium when he would be introduced as LSU’s new football coach on Dec. 1.
The question to Kiffin was if his many previous job moves were helping him decide to stay or move again now.
For from 2008-2020, Kiffin changed jobs five times, and two were not his choice.
… Fired as Oakland Raiders coach at 5-15 early in the 2008 season.
… Left Tennessee burning after a promising 7-6, 4-4 season as coach in 2009 for his dream job back at USC, where he was an assistant under Pete Carroll.
… Fired as USC coach early in the 2013 season at 3-2 and 0-2 after an average 7-6 and 5-4 campaign.
… Left Alabama offensive coordinator job after three great seasons, including the 2015 national title, to become Florida Atlantic’s coach.
… Left Florida Atlantic after two impressive double-digit win seasons out of three to become Ole Miss coach, where he stayed for six seasons.
“Over the years of the changes that I’ve made, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on things that have happened,” Kiffin, 50, said to answer the question. “And I feel like in age, I figured out that they all happened exactly how they were supposed to happen when they were supposed to happen. I just didn’t think that at the time. I thought they were disasters. And they’re just all part of my story.”
But he wasn’t done. Lane transitioned right into his father Monte Kiffin, the epitome of a journeyman coach, who became the premier NFL defensive genius assistant coach when he finally stayed a while. The elder Kiffin became known for the much-copied Tampa 2 version of the Cover 2 pass defense while with the Buccaneers from 1996-2008. His eldest son Lane spoke emotionally at his funeral.
From 1976 when Lane was a 1-year-old born in Lincoln, Nebraska, while his dad was Nebraska’s defensive coordinator, Lane and his family moved seven times by 1991.
Monte Kiffin left Lincoln for Arkansas to be defensive coordinator from 1977-78 and associate head coach there in 1979.
MONTE KIFFIN WAS THE COACH WHO REPLACED BO REIN AT NORTH CAROLINA STATE
He became North Carolina State’s head coach after the 1979 season when he replaced Bo Rein, who left to become LSU’s head coach to replace Charles McClendon. Rein died in a plane crash at age 34 after just weeks on the job on a flight from a recruiting trip in Shreveport back to Baton Rouge, but the plane is believed to have lost oxygen and flew well off course and over North Carolina before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. Rein’s body and that of pilot Lewis Benscotter were never found.
Kiffin coached North Carolina State through the 1982 season before being let go with a 16-17 record.
In 1983, he became Green Bay’s linebacker coach. In 1984 and ’85 when Lane turned 10, he was Buffalo’s linebacker coach. Monte then moved to Minneapolis to be the Minnesota Vikings linebacker coach from 1986-89 before 1990 as the New York Jets linebacker coach.
He returned to Minnesota as linebacker coach from 1991-94, and Lane played quarterback at Thomas Jefferson High in Bloomington, Minnesota, through 1993. Lane moved on to Fresno State from 1994-96 as a backup quarterback while his dad jumped from Minnesota to New Orleans in 1995 and finally to Tampa Bay in 1996.
With Monte’s moveable feast finally ending in Tampa from 1996-2008 as he became the defensive coordinator savant of the ages, it was Lane’s turn to start his annual job changes. Lane became a student assistant coach at Fresno State from 1997-98 before 1999 at Colorado State as a graduate assistant, 2000 with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a defensive quality control assistant and finally landed at USC in 2001.
“You know, I spoke at my dad’s funeral, and I always wondered why we moved so much because it was hard on us as kids,” Kiffin said, continuing to open up. “I realized that was just all part of his story.”
Lane described an epiphany at his dad’s funeral. He connected himself to his dad.
“So many people wrote notes from all the different places,” he said. “And I realized that was God’s plan for him – to impact all those people and have all those relationships. So, I think all the stuff that happened to me, happened how it was supposed to happen.”
And it was about to happen again in a tumultuous week as he exited Oxford and became LSU’s coach amid national controversy.
Once in front of a packed house in the suites above Tiger Stadium on Dec. 1, Kiffin returned to his dad’s story that is his story.
“Over the past few weeks, and especially the last few days, as I was trying to figure out this decision, I really tried to channel my dad,” Kiffin said. “I spoke at his funeral, and it occurred to me as I was writing that speech that I never understood why as a kid we moved so much. It became apparent to me, that that happened for a reason. He went to all those places so he could connect with all those people, impact those people, be impacted by those people.”
And, in turn, that is what Lane Kiffin will be doing.
So, it wasn’t just Nick Saban advising Kiffin go to LSU. It was his dad, too.
“As I thought about that, even with the best six years of my life at Ole Miss, it became apparent to me what the decision was,” Kiffin said.
The decision became L-S-U. … At least for the next several years.
“My journey has been unique, to say the least,” he said. “But I believe everything I’ve been through has prepared me for this moment at this place right now. I also believe everything happened exactly how it was supposed to happen, when it was supposed to happen. That will be clear someday that all of it did.”
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