Will Lane Kiffin show up at Sugar Bowl? Ole Miss' former coach looms large ahead of Rebels' CFP clash with Georgia
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NEW ORLEANS — On Tuesday morning here, Ole Miss football players and coaching staff members spread themselves across a giant ballroom inside the Sheraton Hotel, spending nearly an hour smiling for cameras, chatting into recorders and sliding out and into literal spotlights.
It was Sugar Bowl media day.
Players sat with each of their position coaches at tables equipped with a helpful label for roaming media members.
“OFFENSIVE LINE,” said one label, attached to a table with coach John Garrison and his O-line. A few feet away, Bryan Brown sat with his secondary. And Randall Joyner with his defensive line.
But what made this media day different from all the rest, perhaps completely different than any in the history of bowl game media days, is that six coaches here have signed to coach next season for one of this team’s chief conference rivals and a program in this very state.
In fact, many of the names of these coaches have already been stripped from the Ole Miss online staff directory and added to the one at LSU. Yet, here they are coaching the sixth-seeded Rebels (12-1) in the biggest game in school history — against third-seeded Georgia (12-1) in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day night.
“It’s definitely unique,” says Charlie Weis Jr., the Ole Miss-turned-LSU offensive coordinator who has, at least temporarily, turned back into the Ole Miss offensive coordinator. “It’s certainly weird.”
In a fitting display of this bizarre situation, Weis fielded questions here Tuesday mostly from Louisiana-based media who report daily on LSU football.
What quarterbacks are the Tigers looking at in the portal? What kind of offense do you expect to bring to Baton Rouge?
Don’t worry, it gets weirder.
Lane Kiffin, the former Ole Miss coach now at LSU, may attend the Sugar Bowl along with someone else: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry. Reached on Tuesday, officials at LSU and those with Landry did not dispute that the duo is at least considering attending the game, and security plans are being made for their arrival, those with knowledge told Yahoo Sports.
Did you need more drama?
“Wait until the portal opens,” quips one Ole Miss staff member.
Think of the six future LSU assistant coaches at media day as the last and final remnants of the Kiffin era at Ole Miss, a tenure that came to a fiery ending a month ago when he fled for Baton Rouge, taking with him those coaches before agreeing to permit them to remain in Oxford to complete (maybe) this playoff run.
But this, of course, isn’t without controversy.
There is a poorly kept secret here: Many around the Ole Miss program contend that tampering is afoot, even from within their own walls.
“It’s unfortunate what has been going on with our players and their former head coach and staff,” says Walker Jones, the school’s NIL collective director. “Having to deal with the pressure of making future decisions while trying to prepare for a playoff run is not a sustainable model.
“Yes, does a bad calendar and lack of true oversight hurt? Of course. But so does poor character and lack of respect for your former employer and players. That being said, we are prepared and effectively dealing with this first-of-its-kind, complicated situation.”
Kiffin’s unprecedented exit a month ago — to leave an active playoff team, take staff and, perhaps later, players too — is a scar not easily healed for those who grew closest to him in Oxford. That includes one of the town’s leading restaurateurs who booked so many private dining experiences for the coach over the last six years. And the multi-million-dollar car dealer who loaned Kiffin his private jet. And Jones himself, the man who was recruited by Kiffin years ago to help build and maintain the Rebels’ roster.
They are frustrated, angry and hurt. And while the cohesion of the offensive staff may be best for Ole Miss’ chances in the playoff — that’s why AD Keith Carter made the decision — questions linger about the motives.
“You think Lane is minding his own business and meditating? Come on. I think there are kids he’ll try to get from Ole Miss,” says Matt Bowers, a native of New Orleans and graduate of Ole Miss who owns 14 car dealerships across the South that earn more than $1 billion annually in revenue.
On Tuesday, players mostly shook off questions about any of those discussions. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss says he hasn’t spoken to Kiffin and added, “I don’t think that’s even allowed right now,” a nod to the NCAA’s rules against tampering that few if any are regularly following.
Running back Kewan Lacy says he’s had “conversations” about his future with the outgoing assistant coaches and the incoming new assistant coaches and the holdover assistant coaches — yes, there are three kinds of assistants on this team — but Lacy says he’s focused on the main thing.
After all, he says, “We’re in the playoffs.”
But what about Weis and those five other assistants who’ve signed contracts to coach at LSU next season?
“Their focus is on Georgia-Ole Miss football,” Chambliss said. “Their obligations for next year are next year.”
Except, of course, when the six of them hold separate recruiting meetings at night, some which unfold at Weis’ own home and include, perhaps, conversations about pursuing current Ole Miss players to come to Baton Rouge.
“It’s very strange,” Weis acknowledged. “You spend the whole day grinding together with the gameplan, and at night, you’ve got to go to opposite sides [of the building]. At nighttime, we go take care of recruiting meetings on our own. It’s a crazy deal.”
For some, this is unnerving. The trust factor is a real thing.
In fact, new Ole Miss assistants hired by coach Pete Golding, or those staying on staff next year, will intentionally sit in during individual meetings with players led by some of the six LSU-bound assistants “just to make sure there’s no tampering,” says one school official.
“We got to get the FBI in here to bug the phones,” says one Ole Miss administrative staff member with a laugh.
He’s only half-joking.
Everyone seems to know what’s coming once the Rebels’ season comes to an end: Ole Miss players heading to LSU and, maybe, LSU players heading to Ole Miss — “player swaps,” as one school official described it.
Making matters even more interesting is the addition to Golding’s new staff of former LSU general manager Austin Thomas and running backs coach Frank Wilson, two men who know the LSU roster as well as any.
“We’ve got Frank now,” says a winking Ole Miss staff member. “Look out.”
Some are even wondering if this game will be the last Rebels game for at least some of the LSU-bound assistants, regardless if Ole Miss wins to advance to the semifinals. In fact, last week, Kiffin called back the assistants for a couple of days. They missed meetings and an Ole Miss walkthrough last Monday before returning from Baton Rouge midweek to start gameplanning for Georgia.
It’s all very “weird,” admits Lacy, the Ole Miss running back. “It’s not normal.”
As if the Ole Miss-LSU rivalry needed any more spice. The two programs have played annually since 1945 in a hate-fueled fight with some classic battles.
“I’d rather Lane leave and coach the Serbian national soccer team than LSU,” said Bowers, “but I was raised in the shadow of Tiger Stadium, so I understand.”
Bowers was a member of one of Kiffin’s first NIL-related meetings years ago, where the coach — maybe ahead of anyone else in the country — began to lay out his vision for a portal-fueled and NIL-backed roster with the help of big-money boosters like Bowers and an organizer like Jones.
Bowers and Kiffin became fast friends, traveled together in Bowers’ 10-seat Gulfstream jet and put the Rebels on the national map by landing high school and portal prospects.
“The first time I met Lane, he broke the door to my Gulfstream,” Bowers says with a laugh. “I sent him a bill for $3,800.”
Bowers is a realist about Kiffin’s move to LSU.
“I knew this day was coming,” he says. “I choose to live my life without placing expectations on people. He came in, we won a lot of games, had national media talking about Ole Miss. But do I agree with how he left? No. Do I agree with how he hurt people? No.”
Bowers and Kiffin still communicate, mostly through text and voice memos, which Kiffin is known for leaving people. The same goes for John Currence, the Oxford restaurateur who is also from New Orleans and often arranged for private dining experiences for the coach and his ex-girlfriend at his many restaurants.
“I told him that when I’m down in Baton Rouge, you’d better answer your f****** phone,” Currence says in an interview earlier this week.
During Kiffin’s time in Oxford, the two grew close enough that Kiffin would set aside Ole Miss gear and apparel for Currence. Currence even penned a note to Kiffin while the coach debated leaving Ole Miss three years ago for the Auburn head coaching job.
Did Currence expect Kiffin to leave Oxford? Maybe eventually, but not this year when the Rebels are in position to win it all.
“I think, along with everybody else, I drank the Kool-Aid,” Currence said. “When it became real that he’d be leaving while we are competing for a national championship, I was like, ‘What the f***?’ We were left with our jaws hanging open, ‘What the s*** just happened?’”
Some are angry enough to avoid interviews.
Ole Miss men’s golf coach, Chris Malloy, grew close to Kiffin too, so close that Kiffin’s departure has him irritated enough that he’d care not to comment for this story, according to those close to him.
In an interesting wrinkle, Currence says the Kiffins sneaked back into Oxford a few weeks ago to throw a birthday party for Kiffin’s daughter, Landry, a junior at Ole Miss who Currence says is expected to complete her college career in Oxford.
Of all those in Oxford, Jones may have grown closest to Kiffin. They worked with one another on a daily basis in reshaping the Ole Miss roster into the juggernaut seen today. Jones credits Kiffin for his advanced approach on roster construction in this era of college football. After all, Kiffin was the first person from Ole Miss some four years ago who called Jones — a former coach agent and apparel executive — to lead the Rebels’ collective.
“I felt like there was a friendship there, but it probably was a means to an end. And that’s fine. That happens. I’m not bitter or upset,” Jones said. “When I look back on it, I see it for what it is. It was probably foolish for me to think it was anything more than that.”
Since his departure from Ole Miss, Kiffin has texted Jones a few times. Some were random messages that Jones says are difficult to explain. Others are about social media posts related to the coach’s departure.
Will they ever talk again? Probably not anytime soon, says Jones.
“I think we all wanted to believe that he had truly changed and he had evolved in so many ways and he did evolve,” Jones said. “He did change a lot of things in life for the better. We also felt like there was more in there that would prevent history from repeating itself. But unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same. He’s been a chaser and always will be.”
Jones will attend the Sugar Bowl. So will Bowers and Currence. They’ll all be there inside the Superdome for this momentous occasion.
Can the Kiffin-less Rebels, with a half-dozen LSU coaches on staff, beat the Bulldogs in Louisiana?
“It’s Georgia — the preeminent program of the modern era,” Bowers said. “There’s a lot of truth to Lane not doing this all alone. A lot of people were enlisted to help him. And those people want justification for that on the field. Beating Tulane without Lane Kiffin is one thing. This is a whole different deal.”
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