By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
At the moment, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin remains the top target for the LSU head football coaching job. Some may say he isn’t. Well, if not, he should be.
Of course, none of this matters, if Brian Kelly has not truly been fired yet by LSU – for cause, without cause, or just be-CAUSE he wasn’t winning enough, which would be without cause, which is what happened and would get him his buyout, regardless of LSU’s Causeway of Crap, which LSU needs to cut if it wants Kiffin, or another elite coach.
Chances of LSU getting Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout reduced?
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 11, 2025
“Approximately zero.”
-Attorney Tom Mars, who specializes in college football coach contracts and buyouts.https://t.co/9MZLGtDm6J
According to LSU’s latest spin, Kelly could not be fired by then-athletic director Scott Woodward on Oct. 26, even though Woodward acted unilaterally through much of his reign at LSU and relieved other LSU coaches in similar fashion to how he indeed fired Kelly on Oct. 26.
As a lawyer from New Orleans told me Tuesday night:
“Scott Woodward, who hired him, fired him without cause. He said that in the LSU release on Oct. 26. (‘We had high hopes that Brian Kelly would lead us to multiple SEC and national championships. Ultimately, the success at the level that LSU demands simply did not materialize, and I made the decision to make a change after last night’s game.’) But actually he couldn’t fire him, according to LSU, because he didn’t have the authority? So, when Kelly was fired by that guy LSU fired later (Woodward on Oct. 30), it really didn’t count? And now LSU is saying it’s going to fire Kelly WITH cause that it now has, or that it is just now deciding to use. Well, all righty then (how con-VEN-ient). I hope LSU has cause on video. If not, let’s please mediate.”
So, if Kelly wasn’t really fired, why doesn’t he just show up for Saturday’s game against Arkansas (11:45 a.m., SEC Network) in Tiger Stadium? What would LSU’s lawyers say then? It would be a little like George Costanza of “Seinfeld” showing up for work the next work day after quitting.
Lane Kiffin at LSU could be a match made in Bayou Heaven. … For this lovely couple, too. Column:https://t.co/z1PHxHiXcM
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 28, 2025
A good contact of Kiffin told me recently that he is interested in LSU and in Florida, which also has a head coach opening. And he’d be even more interested in LSU, if they could just keep all of its football-related drama out of the freakin’ news. Governor Jeff Landry is no longer part of this. Now, LSU itself is screwing itself.
Pay Kelly his $54 million and end this circus, or mediate behind closed doors and out of the media. This has been done before by LSU. And LSU’s been throwing around money for years. What’s $24 million more after you already offered to settle with Kelly for $30 million. And add Woodward’s approximate $7 million buyout to the pot, too. He really was fired for cause – be-cause he gave Kelly that “terrible” contract, as Landry correctly said.
That $30 million settlement offer to Kelly, by the way, hurts LSU’s sudden new argument of firing with cause. If you’re trying to fire him with cause now, what was the $30 million for previously?
LSU actually may have enough in a file on Kelly to fire him with cause because of alleged violations of the morality clause in his contract, according to narratives spread to various media members by various LSU sources. That would mean LSU would not have to pay Kelly any part of his buyout, but that all may be too late now. And whatever LSU may have on Kelly that could go public will appear suspicious with limited credibility, unless there is video. Because LSU’s long questionable credibility has fallen yet again, and it might not be able to get back up.
Consider the source, as they say.
“If LSU is running this narrative with sportswriters that Brian Kelly breached the moral turpitude part of his contract, it sounds as though they are just grasping at straws and using a strategy that could blow up in their face,” attorney Tom Mars, who is an expert on college football coaches’ contracts, told Tiger Rag.
If LSU suddenly gets out via media some bad behavior by Kelly while LSU’s coach to prove he can be fired for cause so LSU can get out of paying some or all of the buyout, key questions will arise. Why are you suddenly getting this out now? Why not when it happened? Are you just trying skirt a contractual obligation with new evidence that Kelly didn’t adhere to his? And why didn’t you fire him with cause on Oct. 26? That’s called blowing up in face.
Some close to LSU believe it sunk Kelly’s bid for the whole buyout with its “moral turpitude” clause, which says:
“Engaging in serious misconduct which either … (ii) brings Employee into substantial public disrepute sufficient, at the discretion of LSU, in a manner sufficient to materially impair Employee’s ability to perform the obligations contained herein without material adverse impact on the Team or Program; or (iii) constitutes moral turpitude and breaches the high moral and ethical standards applicable to Employee as a visible representative of LSU, including but not limited to, a knowing and material act of dishonesty.”
Such clauses are not unique.
“It is not uncommon for head coach contracts to have references to the university’s discretion in the section of the contract, defining “for cause” events,” Mars said.
But some close to LSU think it brilliant that it got that clause in past Kelly and his attorneys. Like LSU’s lawyers are crafty or something. Well, the question is, why did LSU need to be so crafty in a contract for Kelly? Was there something LSU knew about him that made it feel like it needed a safety clause? And if so, why the hell did Woodward and LSU hire him and deliver such a great contract for him – terrible for LSU, which LSU seems to be only now realizing and crawfishing on.
“It would also be difficult for LSU to say with a straight face that an event that happened two or three years ago or more recently is suddenly grounds for termination ‘for cause,'” Mars said. “The ‘at the discretion of LSU’ language in the contract does not mean that LSU has unfettered discretion to determine that some conduct by Kelly violated this section of his contract.”
But LSU, despite all its parochial, in-bred BS, can still get Kiffin, if it would just get over Kelly already. It will cost Kelly-like money for someone like Kiffin. But that’s one thing LSU powers do right. When they really need the money for football, or to pay somebody off after losing a lawsuit, they miraculously find it.
And as of Monday, Kiffin sounded very interested in a place like LSU – minus all of the gumbo drama above.
At his weekly press conference Monday, amid rumors of him coaching somewhere new next season, Kiffin was asked a brilliant question that did not mention LSU or Florida, but they were both in the air:
“What are the aspects that make up a good job for a college head coach? What’s at the top of your priority list?”
Kiffin paused and said, “Huh, I wasn’t ready for that one.” But he didn’t say, “Next question.” Because he’s loving all this.
“I think that’s evolved and changed, and there are different things,” he said. “People used to say facilities, practice fields, those things. That’s changed. It’s, ‘How much NIL (money) do you have? How much do you have?'”
LSU certainly had a lot of NIL money last year for the NCAA Transfer Portal as Kelly signed the No. 1 class there for a total roster cost of $18 million. Florida does as well.
“Look at baseball,” Kiffin said. “Over time, who wins and doesn’t win?”
The Los Angeles Dodgers just won the World Series with the No. 2 payroll at $321.3 million. Ole Miss is a great program, but Kiffin knows the Rebels aren’t the Dodgers. Ole Miss is still a better job than Auburn, which Kiffin turned down three years ago and suddenly is open again, but Kiffin is more interested in LSU and Florida than he was in Second City Auburn (to Alabama).
If Kiffin comes to LSU, look for the donors suddenly finding all kinds of money while paying for the legal fees to mitigate Kelly’s contract perhaps, and for the trips to Auburn to see how its donors keep finding the money after bad hire after bad hire.
“Now, how much are you getting from revenue sharing to give to your football program?” Kiffin continued in his pretend interview with another school at an Ole Miss press conference.
“Some things have narrowed because the blue blood programs (like LSU and Florida) can’t stockpile anymore,” Kiffin said. “But there’s still things there, and you (non blue bloods like Ole Miss) are going to still struggle to beat those guys, because kids are still being recruited, and they still see the size of stadiums.”
LSU seats 102,321. Florida seats 88,548. Ole Miss seats 64,038.
Kiffin has often raved about the size of the other SEC stadiums he visits – like Tennessee’s 101,915-seat monstrosity.
“Recruits still see traditions and Heismans and national championships,” Kiffin said.
LSU has as much or more traditions than any program and two of the most famous ones – tailgating and night football. LSU won two Heisman Trophies by quarterbacks from 2019-23. LSU has won three national championships in the last 22 years – 2003, 2011 and 2019 seasons – and played for another in the 2011 season.
Florida has tradition. Can’t think of any off the bat, but I’m sure it’s great. And it did have one of the greatest coaches of all time in Steve Spurrier. Ole Miss has The Grove, which is really cool. Florida last won a Heisman in 2007 with quarterback Tim Tebow. Ole Miss has never won a Heisman, though Archie Manning should have in 1969. Florida won national titles in 2006 and 2008 after its first in the 1996 season. Ole Miss has never won a major wire service, BCS or CFP national title.
But it could happen this season as Kiffin’s Rebels are 9-1 and (5-1 SEC) and ranked No. 7 in the latest College Football Playoff poll for the 12-team tournament. So, LSU may have to wait well into January for Kiffin, and it will be worth it.
A win by Ole Miss over Florida (3-6, 2-4 SEC) on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN), and Kiffin will have his fifth 10-win season in the last five years at Ole Miss. The last time the Rebels put just four 10-win seasons together was over an eight-year period from 1955-62 under coach Johnny Vaught.
“And your location to talent,” Kiffin added in what became a long answer to a question about other jobs – not the Ole Miss job.
Wow, I thought he was going to start talking about the Oaks (on LSU’s campus) next.
Kiffin has had to master the portal to make up for the lack of high school recruits in Mississippi. The Gators are surrounded by talent in the state of Florida, particularly in the Miami area. But there are several other major programs they must do battle with, like Florida State, Miami and Central Florida.
Louisiana as a state has about as much talent as Florida, but just one major program – LSU. Plus Houston and Dallas are right across the west border, and talent-rich Mobile, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle are just past Louisiana’s east line. One of the main things about LSU that attracted Nick Saban from Michigan State in 1999 was the fact that there was no Michigan, or something like it, to contend with at LSU.
One of the main reasons Kiffin did not take the Auburn job after the 2022 season for more money for him and NIL was because Auburn’s coach always has to deal with the Crimson Tide.
Saban’s agent when he went to LSU was Jimmy Sexton, who is Kiffin’s agent. Sexton has or will recommend LSU strongly to Kiffin – if it can clear the crap.
Ole Miss plays its last regular season game on Friday, Nov. 28, at Mississippi State. Something could leak out that weekend.
Stay tuned.
And LSU, get your acts together – fire Brian Kelly AGAIN already, pay him in full or mediate, and drive him to the state line.
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