By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
OXFORD, Mississippi – Lane Kiffin looked like a little puppy dog put in the corner back on January 26, 2008, in Mobile, Alabama.
The Oakland Raiders head coach at the time at the tender age of 32, Kiffin was coach of the North team, which had just lost to the South team, 17-16, at the Senior Bowl. But that wasn’t the problem. He had just gone 4-12 in his first season with the Raiders, and the rumor circulating the NFL coaches’ convention that is the Senior Bowl was that he would soon be fired by Raiders owner Al Davis.
Nervous, not looking anyone in the eye at Ladd-Peebles Stadium that afternoon, he spoke in whispers, and finally the media contingent just let him go. He really looked like he was feeling the pressure. I almost felt sorry for him.
Kiffin, seen as a wunderkind by Davis when he hired the son of NFL defensive mastermind Monte Kiffin one year prior from an impressive run as a USC assistant under Pete Carroll, would be fired the next September after a 1-3 start and a 5-15 introduction to head coaching. And Davis, then 79 and appearing disoriented if not senile, kicked him out the door and to the curb in one of the strangest press conferences on record.
Now 51, Kiffin is in his 15th season as a college football head coach and at his fifth school at LSU. And he may know as much or more football than Davis ever knew. He has had only one more losing season since leaving Davis and the Raiders – 5-7 at Florida Atlantic in 2018 – and seven double-digit win seasons – four at Ole Miss (2021, ’23, ’24 and ’25), two at Florida Atlantic (2017 and ’19) and one at USC (2011).
And if Davis, who died three years after that press conference, was still alive today, he would be so proud of Kiffin. And he perhaps would see him as an adopted son as do Carroll and Kiffin’s other menton – Nick Saban, whom he rejuvenated his career with as offensive coordinator from 2014-16 at Alabama.
For Kiffin is the Al Davis – the Darth Vader – of college football. And he doesn’t need to wear black for any enhancing effect. Kiffin often wears light colors and tries to be nice. But he is the most hated and polarizing man in the the game, just like Davis was. Davis had his Pete Rozelle – the NFL commissioner who battled with him in and out of court for decades. And Kiffin has his Greg Sankey – the SEC commissioner trying to do the same, but not nearly as skilled.
It’s Lane and LSU against the world, says detailed Twitter research by @BetOnline_ag. Interesting read by @kacehk https://t.co/baXQli0bEa
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 18, 2026
And on Saturday night in prime time on national television on ABC, Kiffin will return to where they hate him most – here at Ole Miss. Never mind that he made Ole Miss better than probably its most delusional fans thought it could be. They hate him because he left. Never mind that he stayed for six years and turned down Auburn to stay at Ole Miss after the 2022 season.
Kiffin will walk into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this afternoon with his No. 7 LSU team (2-0) to play No. 8 Ole Miss (2-0) at 6:30 p.m. on ABC. It was only last Nov. 15 that Kiffin was last coaching at Vaught-Heminway, beating Florida, 34-24, to go to 10-1 overall and 6-1 in the SEC on the season. He would finish 11-1 and 7-1 for his fourth double-digit win season over the previous five. No one had won that much over that amount of time at Ole Miss since Johnny Vaught had four 10-win seasons between 1955 and 1963 with three nine-win seasons in there as well.
But after putting Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff and giving the Rebels their first legitimate chance at a national championship since Vaught in the 1950s and ’60s, Kiffin booked for LSU. He wanted to stay and coach Ole Miss in the playoffs while hiring staff and recruiting for Ole Miss, but that wasn’t going to happen. Ole Miss could not have handled a coach playing out the string for Ole Miss while likely recruiting Rebels to join him at LSU after the playoffs. Still, Kiffin staying and coaching Ole Miss would have given Ole Miss a better chance at its first undisputed national title than interim coach turned head coach Pete Golding, who replaced him.
Kiffin judged LSU to be a better job than Ole Miss, although Ole Miss has clearly been a better program than LSU from 2021 on and has a better team now. But LSU has the stadium, is the only major football program in the state and has more resources. Many other coaches would have done the same thing and with the same timing, because of the way the college football schedule and postseason are now.
Nevertheless, the hate and the pressure are on Kiffin because of how he left and where he went. And if he loses tonight, it looks like he made the wrong choice.
But Kiffin knows real pressure. He worked for Al Davis, who always looked over his head coach’s shoulders and constantly second-guessed them. He saw real pressure again as coach at USC, where he inherited major NCAA sanctions that the school said would not fall the way they did when they hired Kiffin. Still, he went 10-2 and 7-2 in the Pac-12 in his second year in 2011, but the NCAA had instituted a bowl ban because of previous violations.
After a 7-5 and 5-4 season in 2012, Kiffin struggled again to a 3-2 and 0-2 start in 2013 and was losing control of the program. He was also still growing up. And he was fired before the team got home after a 62-41 loss at Arizona State.
Kiffin never felt any real pressure at Florida Atlantic or at Ole Miss. By his second season with the Rebels, he was rolling, and other than a slip to 8-5 and 4-4 in his third season, the Lane Train kept chugging to 11-2, 6-2 and 10-3, 5-3 and 11-1, 7-1 for the playoffs. In 2021, he also quit drinking, which had caused him some problems in the past.
Saturday night back at Ole Miss, there will be intense pressure on Kiffin to win to silence the mob circulating around him from everywhere.
LANE KIFFIN IS 1-8 AGAINST TOP 10 TEAMS ON THE ROAD AS A HEAD COACH
There will be pressure on him to win his first game on the road against a top 10 team since his USC team beat No. 4 Oregon, 38-35, in 2011. He is 1-8 in all games as a head coach against top 10 teams on the road. He lost to No. 1 Florida (23-13) and to No. 1 Alabama (13-10) while Tennessee’s coach in 2009, to No. 9 Wisconsin (31-14), to No. 7 Oklahoma (63-14) and to No. 5 Ohio State (45-21) while at Florida Atlantic, and to No. 1 Alabama (42-21), to No. 2 Georgia (52-17) and to No. 9 Georgia (43-35) while at Ole Miss.
That’s pressure. But not like at Oakland and USC. And he craves this type of pressure with the spotlight squarely on him.
“Love him or hate him, you can’t take your eyes off of him,” CBS Sports writer John Talty, who just released “Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football’s Agent of Chaos,” said on “Talk Louisiana” to Jim Engster last week.
He will enjoy being the most watched and disdained person in college football, much like Davis and his Raiders were in the NFL. And compared to his time in Oakland and at USC, Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway for Kiffin will be like a walk in The Grove – on any other day but Saturday, that is.
“It’s going to be awesome,” LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said. “The first SEC match-up, coach Kiffin’s return. It’s going to be electric for sure.”
Ole Miss wide receiver Deuce Alexander, who leads the Rebels with 13 catches for 235 yards and two touchdowns from superstar quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, said to just get ready.
“It’s going to be a bloodbath,” he said. But Alexander retains a healthy respect for Kiffin, as should everyone associated with Ole Miss.
“Kiffin, that’s my guy,” Alexander added. “He’s still my guy. Just a great head coach. You can’t hold nothing against him. It’s no bad blood. We all still cool.”
But the light is hot on the other side. The pressure is really on Ole Miss first-year head coach – anywhere – Pete Golding. The pressure is usually on the less experienced, lesser coach, and at this moment in time, that is clearly Golding.
Yes, Golding won two playoff games last season – 41-10 over Tulane in a mismatch and 39-34 over a great Georgia team before losing 31-27 to Miami in the semifinals. But that was with Kiffin’s team, coaches and players. And the just-promoted defensive coordinator’s offense won the Georgia game and nearly won the Miami game. Golding’s defense was just hanging on as it was in the win over Louisville this season.
Golding still has Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy and Alexander and others, but all those offensive coaches that led Ole Miss to the semifinals last year? Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., who called the plays, co-offensive coordinator Joe Cox, pass game coordinator George McDonald, inside receivers coach Sawyer Jordan, running backs coach Kevin Smith, offensive line assistant James Cregg and quarterbacks assistant Dane Stevens all left for LSU after the playoffs at Ole Miss.
They’re all gone from the Ole Miss sideline now. And Ole Miss’ new offensive coordinator John David Baker, formerly OC at East Carolina after coaching under Kiffin at Ole Miss, is not off to a rocking start quite yet as the leader of the Rebels’ offense.
One would think Ole Miss would’ve tried harder to hire Charlie Weis Jr. last year to be its head coach. He obviously was the star of the staff.
Saturday night is Pete Golding’s first real game as head coach of Ole Miss. His offensive stars are still there, but few of the coaches that helped make them dance.
It’s mostly all on Golding now. That’s pressure, particularly Saturday night when the guy in the shades that Golding knows knows more football than he does is back, and he’s taking names on the other sideline like Al Davis. And he may take a few of your players for next year.
Kiffin is a 51-year-old veteran of six head coaching jobs and 16 seasons with 14 of those complete seasons, 13 of them winning campaigns and seven with 10 wins or more.
Golding. He is 42 and will be head coaching just the sixth game of his career and just third without Kiffin’s coaches.
Do the math. Golding’s the puppy in the corner right now with a raucous sold out Vaught-Hemingway Stadium expecting him to be Vaught or Kiffin. That’s pressure.
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