Lane Kiffin Lights Up Ole Miss Again With Tigers-Rebels Grudge Match Under 6 Weeks Away; Practice Report

Lane Kiffin, Baton Rouge Rotary Club Meeting on 7-29-2026
LSU football coach Lane Kiffin appeared on ESPN's Marty and McGee show Tuesday and stoked the flames for his return to Ole Miss on Sept. 19 when the Tigers play the Rebels.(Tiger Rag photo by Michael Bacigalupi).

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU coach Lane Kiffin was just getting some distance from his infamous quote to Vanity Fair magazine last May about Ole Miss’ racial past.

But on Tuesday, Kiffin poked the bear again, taking a shot at his former school, which he coached from 2020-25 with great success, on the Marty and McGee Show on the SEC Network.

“There’s never a minute, a second in the day that I’m at LSU that I don’t feel the power of LSU,” Kiffin told Marty Smith and Ryan McGee. “At Ole Miss, you can go 7-5, have 7-5 seasons, and you’re good. They won’t even complain in the off-season. It’ll still be great.”

Wow!

Kiffin famously quit tweeting after the Vanity Fair controversy, but with comments like that, he might as well still be tweeting.

Kiffin will bring his No. 13 Tigers to Oxford, Mississippi, to play No. 10 Ole Miss on September 19 in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in prime time (6:30 p.m., ABC). LSU opens the season on Sept. 5 against No. 23 Clemson in Tiger Stadium (6:30 p.m., ABC).

Kiffin went 5-5 at Ole Miss in his first season in 2020, but the Rebels were 4-8 the year before for their third losing season in four years. Then he went 10-3, 8-5, 11-2, 10-3 and 11-1 last season before leaving after the regular season to become LSU’s coach. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was promoted to head coach and won two playoff games to reach the semifinals before losing.

Interesting comment by Kiffin, but he is flat wrong. If Golding goes 7-5 this season with returning players like quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss fans will indeed be disappointed, will complain and will not go around saying, “We’re good.”

Why? Because of Kiffin. His success at Ole Miss and the success in the playoffs with Kiffin’s team by Golding has built up expectations for Ole Miss as high or higher than at any time in Ole Miss history. And Golding will be under more pressure to win with what Kiffin built for him than Kiffin will be under at LSU, which was 7-6 last season.

“If I’m 7-5, I’m miserable,” Kiffin said. “I don’t care where I am. I don’t care if the fans are mad or not. I’m miserable myself. So that didn’t appeal to me to stay somewhere because of that lower expectation of a program.”

Kiffin repeated that he also left Ole Miss because he felt he was getting too comfortable there.

“One of the benefits is it pushed me to grow more,” Kiffin said of the move to the Tigers. “The expectation at LSU is as high as anywhere in any sport or any program. It’s uncomfortable for a lot of people. I like that. That matches me.”

PRACTICE NOTES: The Tigers donned full pads for the first time this camp in practice number six on Tuesday. The media, though, did not get to see any hitting in an 11-minute viewing period of non-contact drills.

Tight end Trey’Dez Green continued to wear a gold jersey for no contact, but he does not appear to have a significant injury. True freshman wide receiver Jabari Mack of Destrehan High in the New Orleans area was also wearing gold and does appear to have an injury.

LSU will hold a walk-through of plays on Wednesday before a Thursday practice at 10 a.m. Kiffin and players will be available for interviews after practice. The Tigers will practice again at 10 a.m. on Friday before the first scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday, which will be closed to reporters.

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