Lane Kiffin has grown up a bit since the last time he got himself into a hostile situation.
The last time he found himself in some real hot water as a head coach was back in 2021, and he seemingly relished every moment. It was his first season as the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, and he had returned to face the Tennessee Volunteers for the first time as an opponent.
Kiffin infamously skipped town on the Vols for the head-coaching job with the USC Trojans after just one year on Rocky Top, and his return to Neyland Stadium was not a welcome one.
As the game wound down, Kiffin and his Rebels were pelted with junk from the stands, and that included a mustard bottle as well as a golf ball.
Kiffin seemingly loved it.
“They were chanting like ‘F— Lane Kiffin.’ That actually felt kind of intense and cool,” Kiffin told podcaster Theo Vonn in 2025. “100,000 people chanting that … And then the student section was like ‘Hey, last night, we were with your wife.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s pretty funny to come up with this stuff.’ So it was intense and it kept building.”
Lane Kiffin enjoys being the bad guy
Kiffin seemingly loves to “play the heel,” so his new comments to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach about leaving Ole Miss for his new job with the LSU Tigers, right before the College Football Playoff, are a bit shocking in that light.
Does he regret his messy exit from Oxford?
“Yeah, I do,” Kiffin told ESPN on Thursday. “But I think that’s a good thing that I look at life that way now, instead of saying, ‘No, I don’t. I was right.’ I look at things always now, like, how could I have done them better? But it’s also easier when you’re further removed. There’s no emotion involved.”
It’s not that he left, but rather, how.
Kiffin led the Rebels to an 11-1 record in the regular season, and he apparently spent days fighting with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter to keep coaching the team in the College Football Playoff despite publicly having accepted the position at LSU.
Rather than make it messy and complicated, Kiffin wishes he had a clean break.
“I wish I would have gone in when I met with Keith and said, ‘I’ve made the decision to go,'” Kiffin explained. “I wish I would have just said, ‘Hey, I’d like to coach the team,’ and he’d say, ‘No.’ And I’d say, ‘Hey, OK, I appreciate it.’ [I wish I’d] move on [and] never even discussed it again.”
Pete Golding and Lane Kiffin disagree on one thing
Kiffin also turned up the temperature between the two parties by not letting all of the assistants who chose to join him at LSU coach Ole Miss in the CFP.
Speaking of assistants, defensive coordinator Pete Golding was promoted to full-time head coach and he led the Rebels to the semifinals, where they ultimately lost to the Miami Hurricanes.
Golding told ESPN that he has no “ill will” toward Kiffin, though he didn’t agree with how Kiffin handled the staff during the transition from Ole Miss to LSU.
“I don’t expect Pete Golding to agree with everything I do, nor would I agree with everything he said in press conferences during that transition,” Kiffin said. “That’s not going to happen. It’s not my job to do what he wants. It’s not his job to do what I want.”
So yes, Kiffin changed. But some things never change.