Lane Kiffin Receives Urban Meyer’s Blunt Message After Concerning Revelation About LSU HC: “Gotta Self-Evaluate”
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
Urban Meyer did not need to spend much time on Lane Kiffin’s 32-24 loss at Ole Miss before another number took over the conversation. And the stat Meyer saw went beyond one night in Oxford.
On the Sept. 23 episode of The Triple Option, Rob Stone brought up Kiffin’s record in true road games against AP Top 25 opponents. Kiffin is now 2-19 in those games, while his mark against AP Top 10 teams on the road stands at 1-9. Meyer paused on the first number.
“That’s a strong enough ratio there that … he’s got to self-evaluate what they do on the road,” Meyer said immediately. “When they go, you know, all kinds of stuff. “
The number needs some context. The road record is striking, but it does not tell the whole story of Kiffin’s career. Kiffin has coached at four FBS programs, and his performance against ranked opponents improved significantly once he got to Ole Miss.
He went 1-3 against ranked teams at Tennessee, 2-7 at USC, and 0-5 at Florida Atlantic. That left him 3-15 before arriving in Oxford. At Ole Miss, he went 10-10 against ranked opponents over six seasons.
That stretch is a big reason LSU hired him. The Rebels had managed only two 10-win seasons from 1972 through Kiffin’s arrival. His final Ole Miss season last year was a pinnacle in the program’s history.
Yet, the LSU loss last Saturday has circled those conversations back to Kiffin’s road record. It’s understandable, too, since the Tigers have invested close to $50 million in their roster and handed Kiffin a $90 million 7-year deal.
Lane Kiffin’s problem on the road at Ole Miss was never that his teams could not win away from Oxford. They did. They won at Auburn in 2023 and went into Norman in 2025 and beat Oklahoma 34-26.
The issue was what happened when a ranked opponent forced them to play from pressure for an entire night. That’s whatUrban Meyer highlighted. The 2022 trip to LSU was probably the strangest one.
Ole Miss was 7-0 and ranked No. 7. It was not just hanging around in Baton Rouge. The Rebels were leading 20-17 early in the fourth quarter and had moved inside the LSU 10-yard line. Then Jaxson Dart threw an interception.
LSU converted the turnover into a touchdown, and momentum shifted completely. Jayden Daniels took over from there. LSU scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and won 45-20.
Kiffin afterward called it a game of missed opportunities. He specifically pointed to the interception when Ole Miss had a chance to extend its lead. A year later, Alabama produced a different version of the same problem.
Ole Miss went into Bryant-Denny Stadium ranked No. 15. It was actually ahead 7-6 at halftime. The Rebels had held Alabama to 115 yards and no touchdowns in the first half. Then the game got away from them.
Jaxson Dart threw an interception on Ole Miss’ first possession of the second half. Alabama scored a touchdown two plays later. The Tide then opened the fourth quarter with a 75-yard touchdown drive.
Ole Miss managed only 10 points all afternoon and lost 24-10 after being tied with Alabama in the middle of the third quarter. Then came Georgia in 2023.
This loss hit differently. Ole Miss was No. 9 in the country and walked into Athens with an 8-1 record. The Rebels tied the game at 14-14 early in the second quarter, but Georgia answered with two touchdowns before halftime.
Kirby Smart’s team added another touchdown to open the second half. Ole Miss could not respond and was shut out in the third quarter. The Rebels lost the 2024 LSU game similarly. And Lane Kiffin usually has only one thing to say in those post-game pressers.
“We should win that game,” he said after the 2024 LSU loss. Guess what he had to say after LSU fell behind 24-7, fought back to tie the game, and then allowed Trinidad Chambliss to take over the final stretch?
“Should have won the game,” the LSU HC said. What kept hurting Kiffin in Oxford was the other kind of road night, when the opponent answered every run, the game tightened late, and one mistake suddenly became three. The question?
Has LSU been too myopic to hire Kiffin and invest so heavily on him? Only time will tell now. Still, there’s a lot of time to correct the mistakes and stop comebacks turning into defeats.
Trending Articles
- Pat McAfee Spotted With Ole Miss Student Whose Life He “Ruined” After Spreading Rumor on Live TV
- Tensions Rise for Trinidad Chambliss as ESPN’s Rece Davis Gives Concerning Ole Miss Verdict
- Fired ESPN Host Questions Pat McAfee’s On-Air Conduct Over Concerns About Young Viewers: “It’s Wrong”
- College Football QB Falls Into Coma After Terrifying On-Field Head Injury, Family Seeks $95,000 Medical Support
- SEC Star WR Suffers Season-Ending Injury After Being Carted Off Field in Week 3
The post Lane Kiffin Receives Urban Meyer’s Blunt Message After Concerning Revelation About LSU HC: “Gotta Self-Evaluate” appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos