‘He Supercharged the Hate,’ ‘Was Casual With Something Sacred’ — ESPN Writer Details How Lane Kiffin Turned LSU-Ole Miss Rivalry Into a Personal Grudge

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The LSU-Ole Miss rivalry already carries decades of history, but Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford on Saturday has added a different kind of tension. His decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU came at a difficult moment and was followed by disputes involving former Rebels players.

As Kiffin prepares to face his former team for the first time since leaving, the history behind his departure has become part of the game’s storyline.

Wright Thompson Breaks Down Lane Kiffin’s Bitter LSU-Ole Miss Return

Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU on November 30, last year, after guiding the Rebels to an 11-1 regular season.

Kiffin’s timing became a major source of frustration as Ole Miss prepared for the College Football Playoff. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding then took over as the Rebels’ head coach.

The relationship between Kiffin and his former program became even more complicated after he arrived at LSU.

He pursued former Ole Miss players, and the dispute eventually reached the SEC after Kiffin tried to add Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, who had recently been waived by NFL teams. An SEC lawsuit against LSU also included Kiffin, adding another issue to an already difficult relationship.

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ESPN writer Wright Thompson used that episode to explain why the anger around Kiffin goes beyond normal coaching movement.

He wrote, “And when Kiffin tried to sign two former Ole Miss players from NFL rosters, and an SEC lawsuit against LSU named him personally, the grievance burned as hot around here as I can remember. My 13-year-old cousin broke his family’s television by punching it when Kiffin came on the screen in the Tigers’ opener.”

For Thompson, the issue is not simply that Kiffin made a career decision. He argued that the coach’s approach collided with how people in Oxford and Baton Rouge view the rivalry and its traditions.

Thompson added, “That’s what makes Kiffin’s conduct so upsetting to so many, I think. Not that he followed the rules of modern capitalism, but that he didn’t understand how his personal ambitions supercharged the hate of the game and pushed the love into the shadows. He was casual with something sacred.”

Thompson also presented a clear contrast between Kiffin’s view of the matchup and the way longtime members of both communities understand it.

He wrote, “To Kiffin, the Ole Miss-LSU game is about scoring more points, about right here, right now, but to me, and to Bunnie Cannon, and to people like us in Oxford and Baton Rouge, the game is an excuse to remember, to cherish those who have left us, and protect them from oblivion for one more year.”

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Thompson’s final point was also that sports memories can disappear quickly in a transaction-driven era. Thompson wrote, “I suspect the anger at Kiffin is preemptive self-loathing. He’s a proxy. We hate that we will forget his betrayal. We will forget how he made us feel. In our hyperreal world the forgetting can happen at the instant of remembering. A single transaction.”

With Kiffin returning to Oxford on September 19, the matchup now carries the history of his departure, the roster dispute, and the different meanings attached to the rivalry.

This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.

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