By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Another reason why LSU football coach Lane Kiffin should not have brought up Ole Miss’ racial history as it pertains to recruiting in a recent Vanity Fair article played out Tuesday at the Southeastern Conference Spring Meetings.
The former Ole Miss head coach the last six years was asked more about his old job than his new one during a press conference at the Hilton Sandestin Beach resort hotel.
He was asked how his relationship with Ole Miss is going.
“I know you wanted that line,” he said and didn’t answer the question. “I had a really good one, too.”
But that one, he held back. So, maybe he’s learning.
Kiffin’s comment in the May 11 Vanity Fair article that blew sand in Ole Miss’ face came from an anecdote about recruiting at Ole Miss that he told writer Chris Smith.
“When he was coaching there, Kiffin says, top recruits would tell him, ‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,’” Smith wrote in the story. Then he quoted Kiffin now famously saying, “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus diversity feels so great. ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’”
Kiffin’s discussion of Ole Miss continued in this way Tuesday.
“You can have had a wonderful experience,” he said. “And everything you said about those six years where you needed Oxford and Ole Miss more than they needed you, and that can totally be true. And then you can choose a new challenge and go to another place. And so both those things are true.”
Kiffin was asked about why he chose LSU over Florida, which was also trying to hire him from Ole Miss. But he seemed to revert back to Ole Miss, which he can’t seem to stop talking about.
“You’re not going to please everybody in these decisions, and that’s impossible, as it obviously has played out,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we went through all kinds of different things, a number of different options, and we made this decision for the next chapter. I never said the decision was just about winning national championships. There are a lot of things that went into it. And you take a different job. And sometimes, time is just right for a new challenge. And this is a really big challenge.”
There was finally a question about LSU.
“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s been a great six months. Signed a lot of really good players and have guys committed, and put together an awesome staff.”
When asked about returning to Ole Miss on Sept. 19 as LSU’s coach for a prime time game on ABC at 6:30 p.m., Kiffin said, “I’m not even there yet. We’ve got so much work to do before that. We’ve got a huge opener with Clemson (Sept. 5, 6:30 p.m., ABC). I’ve been back to Tennessee before.”
As Ole Miss’ coach on Oct. 17, 2021, Kiffin returned to Tennessee to play the Volunteers, whom he coached for one season in 2009 before taking what he thought was his dream job at USC, where he was an assistant coach under Pete Carroll. The Rebels won, 31-26, but Kiffin was hit by a golf ball as a sea of objects flew from the stands late in the game, including plastic and glass bottles.
“So, I guess we’ve got some practice at it,” Kiffin said.
And Kiffin did field a question about hiring former national champion LSU head coach Ed Orgeron last week as a special assistant for recruiting and defense. Of course, Orgeron used to be an Ole Miss head coach, too, and coached under Kiffin at Tennessee and at USC.
“It’s a unique situation,” Kiffin said. “Having known him before and worked with him, and he moved back (to Baton Rouge). So, it just seemed like the perfect time to bring him back. I feel awesome about it. I feel the comfort of having him on the staff. Knowing that he’s on the staff, certain things are going to be taken care of.”
Meanwhile, word around the beach is that the SEC office may reprimand Kiffin for his derogatory comments about Ole Miss. SEC has rules against coaches criticizing other SEC coaches, such as Bylaw 10.2.3 that ays SEC personnel should “avoid making any derogatory statements concerning another member institution’s athletics program, facilities, or educational opportunities.”
And Bylaw 10.5.2 says “public criticism of other member institutions” is forbidden.
“I had conversations with two of our three coaches’ groups here Tuesday,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “Those people in leadership positions need to function like leaders in their conduct and commentary.”
So perhaps Kiffin was not functioning like a leader?
Asked directly if Kiffin will be fined or reprimanded in some other way, Sankey said, “You’ll find out when everyone else finds out. I don’t make those announcements at podiums.”
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