The wild story behind Trinidad Chambliss' Ole Miss return starts with Lane Kiffin
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OXFORD — Tom Mars furiously swipes through his phone.
He's searching for a text message.
"I know I kept it," he says. "It's just too funny."
An attorney most famous for his takedowns of the NCAA, Mars retains this specific text message — sent to him last December — for one, big reason. The eight-word text kicked off one of the more gratifying and fascinating legal pursuits of his career: the Mississippi state court case that ended in Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss gaining a sixth season of eligibility.
"Here it is!" Mars shrieks.
He reads the text aloud.
"Tom it's lane give me a call please"
About two weeks after LSU introduced its new head football coach, Lane Kiffin privately and quietly maneuvered to help, of all people, the all-star quarterback of his former school, which just so happens to be his new school's chief rival. He connected Mars with the Chambliss family and the quarterback's agent; they enlisted Mars to assist the university's last-ditch effort to convince the NCAA to grant Chambliss a waiver; and then, when that waiver was denied, they retained him to mount their legal attack against the organization.
The litigious fight culminated in the most bizarre scene from a rural Mississippi courthouse in February: A local judge, growing emotional from reading aloud his own verdict, granted Chambliss an additional year of eligibility by prohibiting the NCAA from enforcing its rules.
Seven months later, here in one of America's most charming college towns, that decision resurfaces as a centerpiece to one of the most anticipated regular season games in the history of the storied Southeastern Conference: LSU vs. Ole Miss.
Among the myriad drama-soaked storylines, there is perhaps one that is most fascinating: LSU's head football coach holds some responsibility in the continued eligibility of Ole Miss' Heisman Trophy-worthy quarterback.
Of course, those here in Oxford say that wasn't Kiffin's original intention.
"His sole motivation was to get him eligible and bring him to Baton Rouge," quipped one person familiar with Kiffin's recruiting efforts last December.
'He's been a chaser and always will be'
This game drips with intrigue, from Kiffin's pursuit of Chambliss (and other players) to so much else.
More than two dozen coaches and staff members traded places this offseason, moving from LSU to Ole Miss or Ole Miss to LSU. Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding, originally from Louisiana, grew up surrounded by the purple and gold. And Ole Miss is suing two LSU players over buyouts they owe after following their coach to Baton Rouge.
Kiffin's aggressive recruiting effort of Ole Miss players, while they practiced and competed in the College Football Playoff, serves as one of the many screws the coach twisted into his former school.
Relationships here are forever cratered.
Just ask Walker Jones, the former agent and apparel executive who Kiffin hired five years ago to operate the school's NIL collective. He grew as close to Kiffin as anyone in Oxford.
In published comments from an interview with Yahoo Sports in January, Jones fired a barb at Kiffin that caught the coach's attention enough to trigger a private text exchange.
"Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same," Jones said then. "He's been a chaser and always will be."
In interviews this week, a few days ahead of Saturday's prime-time collision, Jones, athletic director Keith Carter and others intentionally avoid Kiffin talk. The consensus is clear: This fire is already raging; it doesn't need more fuel.
That said, Carter quips about the game, "There may be a little bit more to this one."
The hate for Kiffin here is palpable.
And yet, was he, of all people, behind the extended eligibility of Chambliss?
Not completely, those here contend. He was one of many who worked behind the scenes.
But this is true: Some 16 days after being introduced as LSU's coach — at 4:15 p.m. ET on Dec. 17 — Kiffin fired off that text to an attorney he'd never met or spoken with. He even failed — or chose not — to capitalize his first name.
"Tom it's lane give me a call please"
So miffed at the random message, Mars called around to verify the unidentified cell number belonged to the LSU football coach. The two of them then held a conversation.
"He told me about this kid and how great he was," Mars recalled. "He said the waiver had been denied and it'd been going on for a long time and he wanted to get him to LSU and would I be willing to help him? We had a couple of conversations. I wanted Trinidad to have as many opportunities as he could have."
Kiffin connected Mars with the Chambliss family and his agent, Fletcher Smith.
But even before that, the legal process was well underway from the university side through William Liston, a notable Mississippi trial lawyer based in Jackson who serves as general counsel for the Ole Miss collective. Mars teamed up with Liston, plus Oxford attorney Trey Byars, to develop one of the most high-profile eligibility lawsuits in NCAA history — a legal filing that featured a sort-of first-of-its-kind argument.
LSU or Ole Miss?
Weeks before attorneys filed into a rural Mississippi courthouse to deliver their arguments, well before the judge granted Chambliss that injunction, another decision needed to be made.
If Chambliss won his lawsuit, would he play at Ole Miss or LSU?
"It was a hard time," Carter said. "We felt like there was a pull from Baton Rouge for Trinidad."
All of this unfolded during college football's wacky December-January time period — a condensed stretch that includes playoff games, coaching moves and player transfers (the portal was open Jan. 2-16).
After Ole Miss stunned Georgia in a quarterfinal game in New Orleans on Jan. 1, negotiations picked up. A decision needed to be made. Time was running out. How long would LSU even hold a spot for the quarterback not knowing if he'd be eligible? Mars says that answer was around Jan. 2-4, the first weekend in which the portal was open.
Would Chambliss really leave Oxford?
"It was a difficult decision," said Smith, Chambliss' agent. "Trinidad loves Ole Miss, but this was his career. We had to look beyond the emotion and ask, 'From a football standpoint, where does he have the best opportunity to succeed?
"But there was a bigger picture," he continued. "Here was a Division II national champion who had defied the odds, stepped into the SEC and succeeded at the highest level. He had earned the respect of people in Oxford and across the country. So you had to ask: Do you walk away from everything you've built and potentially risk being vilified for leaving Ole Miss to go to LSU?"
Smith says the answer eventually "became clear."
For Ole Miss officials, it never felt like the quarterback would leave, said Jones. "But we knew the reality — that people were talking to him."
Kiffin, of course, was one.
The coach told those close to him that he needed an answer from Chambliss by the end of that weekend at the latest.
On that Sunday, Jan. 4, three days after Ole Miss' quarterfinal upset of Georgia and four days before the Rebels met Miami in the semifinal, Chambliss made his decision: He struck a deal in a "matter of hours" with the Rebels, Jones says.
The legal situation then hit its stride.
Chambliss needed to gain his eligibility after an NCAA committee — made up of school administrators — denied his waiver. He sought a sixth year of eligibility for a missed season due to a severe case of tonsillitis.
Mars and the team of attorneys were confident in their lawsuit.
Their argument featured two parts.
First, attorneys used the NCAA's contract with its member universities against the association itself. They claimed that the NCAA denying Chambliss' waiver breached the contract with Ole Miss, and Chambliss, as a third-party beneficiary to that contract, was entitled to damages.
Secondly, Mars alerted attorneys to what he calls a little-known fact: According to the Supreme Court, unincorporated associations like the NCAA hold "citizenship" in each state where their members reside. That means the organization's citizenship in Mississippi prevented a removal of the case from state to federal court, where it would theoretically hold better odds at victory.
"That was important," Mars said.
Mars doesn't want too much of the credit. He points to Liston and Byars as spearheading the legal argument and the court proceedings and he especially noted the work of Taylor Hall, Ole Miss' ace compliance administrator who led the team from the university side.
"I can't overstate enough how good those two Mississippi trial lawyers are," he said.
On Feb. 12, the Chambliss injunction hearing unfolded within a county courthouse in Pittsboro, Mississippi — population 157. Mars arrived in true southern style: He climbed out of a pickup truck driven by Byars.
He scanned the scene around him. The courthouse represented the lone modern building in the vicinity. A dilapidated shack sat across the black asphalt street, its wooden porch sunken from the weight of dozens of rusting appliances. The town's 174-year-old post office was nearby too, no bigger than a small shuttle bus, its white exterior and 19th-century architecture an image of yesteryear.
"The next nearest restaurant was a barbecue joint that doubles as a tanning salon," Mars said with a laugh.
As the court proceeding began, he witnessed a first in his 40-year career as an attorney: A local pastor, standing in the middle of the court room, delivered a prayer. The pastor ended the benediction by asking the Lord for a favor: Please extend the eligibility of Trinidad Chambliss.
"At that moment, I thought, 'Somebody pinch me!'" Mars said.
Three weeks later, the attorney opened his front door to an elaborate gift box. Awaiting him inside was a note and an autographed jersey from Ole Miss' quarterback.
Mars chuckles at the thought.
Thanking me?
"It's really funny," he said, "that Lane sets this in motion."
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