On Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, closure and healing

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OXFORD – For six seasons, Lane Kiffin paced the sidelines at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium closest to the press box. I was present for five of them, a timeframe that saw Ole Miss lose just three times in Oxford. The Rebels won 55 games with Kiffin in charge and, more than anything, he conducted himself with a pizazz that only he could.

Some of my personal favorites:

• During a pregame interview in 2021 prior to a matchup at No. 1 Alabama, he told viewers to “Get your popcorn ready.” The Rebels lost by three touchdowns and, in a press conference the next week, told reporters he informed his offensive coordinator they “didn’t plug the microwave in.”

• Putting 26 players on the SEC mandated injury report prior to a matchup against Georgia in 2024.

• A halftime interview in 2025 where Ole Miss led the Citadel by 35 and, in response to being asked how things were going, said, “Just excited that Georgia is boat racing Mississippi State 38-7.”

• During the aforementioned Citadel matchup where he took pictures with a newly engaged couple following an on-field marriage proposal … mid-game.

Kiffin was the head coach at USC when I was a Daily Trojan reporter learning the ins and outs of journalism. That made Saturday a truly odd experience for me – for the first time in my life, Kiffin was coaching the team I wasn’t covering. I wasn’t the only one on Saturday who found it unsettling to see him wearing an LSU visor, in his signature white hoodie, but emblazoned with purple and gold. There were 70,000 people who likely had the same feeling I did.

No. 8 Ole Miss held off No.7 LSU in a 32-24 thriller in Kiffin’s first game back at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium since leaving the Rebels at the conclusion of the 2025 regular season. He led Ole Miss to an 11-1 record and left the team just after the Egg Bowl, prior to the program’s first berth in the College Football Playoff. December marked a new beginning – newly anointed head coach Pete Golding led Ole Miss to a pair of CFP victories before ultimately bowing out in the semifinals.

The end of 2025 and beginning of 2026 was technically the start of a new era at Ole Miss. Call Saturday the matchup of Past vs. Present, Good vs. Evil, whatever suits your fancy. But this weekend resembled closure. It was an opportunity for all parties involved to get everything out of their systems.

It felt like something akin to moving on.

“Finally got that one out of the way,” said Ole Miss sixth-year quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who finished with 365 total yards and three total touchdowns against the Tigers. “Feel like we’ve been hearing about that for the whole offseason and throughout the whole year. So, glad we got the win. Proud of our team.”

For players and coaches, it was finally time to stop talking about having or not having circled Sept. 19 on their calendars and do something about it between the lines. And for fans, it was a chance to scream everything they’d held in for the last nine-plus months directly at the man responsible for making them feel a certain way. He was right there, in the flesh, Public Enemy No. 1. And the Ole Miss faithful got their money’s worth. Catharsis is a powerful tool when used wisely, especially when fortune favors you.

But now that the dust has settled on the first Kiffin vs. Ole Miss matchup, the circus has drawn to a close. LSU and Ole Miss are going to play every year, and assuming Kiffin stays with the Tigers for the foreseeable future, this is going to be an annual event. The first time talking to your ex following a messy breakup is always the hardest, though. After that, the awkwardness becomes routine. All parties become accustomed to the new normal – even if it never sits quite right.

Perhaps more than anything, all parties eventually come to the realization that, despite the ups and downs of the rollercoaster, the journey was worthwhile, even if the ending wasn’t picture-perfect. The good times and the bad happened for a reason. Both sides have found new partners and couldn’t be happier.

ESPN’s College GameDay host Rece Davis put it best when he met with media Friday.

“It is perceived that (Kiffin) sent the message that they are better than you. And people don’t like that, especially if you’re on the receiving end of it. All of us have had relationships end or whatever, or jobs end or whatever, and the message is: we don’t like you as much as we like this other person. Nobody likes that,” Davis said. “ … Feeling scorned, being aggravated about it, not making Lane Kiffin the most popular person in Oxford is completely reasonable. Also reasonable to say – and this will take some time – but years down the road, I think there will be great appreciation for the way he got Ole Miss pointed in the right direction. … (But) probably not Saturday, and that’s understandable.”

Several things can be true at once – that Kiffin led Ole Miss to great heights, that his breakup with Ole Miss was messy, and that Pete Golding is the perfect person to lead Ole Miss. Saturday night truly felt like the end of one chapter and the start of another in Oxford. It corresponded to healing.

And hopefully the rest of the book is as entertaining as what we just finished.

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