Lane Kiffin chased something better. Ole Miss proved he already had it | Opinion - USA Today

OXFORD, MS – Here’s the silliest, the saddest, the most galling part about Lane Kiffin leaving this place.

He interrupted the best stretch of success he’d ever experienced, and he left with the zenith still on the table.

Kiffin built Mississippi into a monster. He and the administration and the donors who supported him put in the hard work to turn Ole Miss from an afterthought into a force.

Just as Kiffin stood to reap the sweetest rewards, he left. He couldn’t resist LSU’s siren call, just when the Rebels were at their strongest. When Kiffin returned 10 months later to stand across from the beast he helped create, it swallowed him and LSU.

Ole Miss won 32-24 in a night of euphoria meets retribution at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Thanks in part to Kiffin, there’s nothing Ole Miss can’t achieve. Including wins against teams like LSU, just as it beat Georgia in the playoff, mere weeks after Kiffin literally jetted out of town.

As Mississippi piled up points and built a big first-half lead, Kiffin looked on from the visitor’s sideline with a thousand-yard stare.

Kiffin described this week, and this night, as “really emotional,” in ways he didn’t expect.

“I just thought I’d probably be more in like the competitive mode, you know, and just kind of embrace it,” Kiffin said after LSU’s rally fell short, and Trinidad Chambliss scored the winning touchdown against his ex-coach.

“It was just a little bit, I don’t know, sometimes you can’t predict your emotions,” Kiffin added. “Sometimes I don’t act like it, but I’m a human, too.”

Among those human emotions Kiffin says he felt?

“Gratitude,” he said, “for this place and the people that changed my life.”

Kiffin used to say he found peace in Mississippi, right up until he left it. His time here brought significant successes, along with loss. Both of his parents died while he was Ole Miss’ coach, including his dad, Monte, with whom he was particularly close.

While the wins piled up, Kiffin made strides in his personal and family life. He wasn’t shy about discussing what he felt amounted to substantial growth. He liked to say he needed this town and its people more than they needed him.

Probably, there was truth in that. And, simultaneously, what Kiffin described as his “Mississippi slowdown” never felt permanent. It always seemed as if he was engaged in a yearslong image workshop, and he quietly coveted jobs he perceived to be higher up the ladder.

“Six years here," a pensive Kiffin said, "and a lot of things and a lot of life-changing experiences and a lot of really good people that helped me through some really hard times."

Did I detect a hint of mournfulness in Kiffin’s voice, as he came face to face with all that he left?

I don’t think Kiffin ever fully appreciated how much he enjoyed being the likable underdog at Ole Miss, or how crippling the weight of being the most hated man in college football would be, after he big-timed Mississippi for LSU.

Perhaps, reality hit home on this night.

No single reason encapsulates why Kiffin left. He considered LSU a better program, a prettier bride. He thought he’d attract more blue-chip recruits at LSU. He craved LSU’s spotlight and fantasized about coaching games inside Tiger Stadium.

Also, he worried about what would happen if he couldn’t match the bar he’d set at Ole Miss. If his success faltered, would the fans who chanted his name turn on him and run him out? He’s been fired twice before, including from his dream job. Rather than stay and risk the reality that the 2025 season would become his ceiling, he opted to rebuild an A-list program that had slipped.

If Kiffin hadn’t left for LSU, he probably would’ve left for Florida. He almost left for Auburn. He’s not a nester. He exhibits a wandering eye. Right under his nose, he’d built a program that reached the playoff semifinals without him — and could do it again.

Chambliss proved once again he’s among the nation’s best quarterbacks. Kiffin referred to him as “Houdini,” and he heaped praise on Chambliss' wide receivers, too. Chambliss got an assist from a defense that clinched the victory with a fourth-down stop, and Ole Miss controlled the lines of scrimmage.

Remind me why Kiffin wanted to leave this team?

True, Kiffin couldn’t have known for certain Chambliss would get a sixth season of eligibility, and he believed he had a shot of getting him to transfer to LSU if Chambliss did get another year. Chambliss got the sixth year. Unlike Kiffin, he stayed true to Ole Miss.

If they feel any gratitude for Kiffin here after he spurned them, they didn’t show it on this night. Instead, he got a blast of vitriol.

The student section filled up more than 90 minutes before kickoff. By 60 minutes before kick, the empty seats anywhere in the stadium were few and far between.

“The stadium’s full an hour early. I guess I had to leave to get them to do that, so, you’re welcome,” Kiffin said in a playful jab at Ole Miss.

As Kiffin put it, LSU walked “into a storm.”

He experienced something like this before. When he returned to Tennessee as Ole Miss’ coach in 2021, nearly a dozen years after he jilted the Vols, Tennessee fans got so worked up, they trashed their own field with a deluge of beer cans, debris, a mustard bottle and one yellow golf ball. Kiffin pocketed the golf ball and kept it as a memento of a night he described as being like a gladiator in a coliseum.

He relished that night at Tennessee, and he walked out triumphantly.

He didn’t seem to enjoy this return in front of a record crowd of 70,033. Kiffin appeared off. Low energy. Stupefied. Defeated. He just kept staring, as Chambliss kept scoring.

Forty minutes before kickoff, Kiffin emerged from the visitor’s tunnel. The boos thundered down from the home fans who had chanted his name as recently as November.

Later, the student section cursed his name.

Once the game started, the venom took a backseat to cheers for the program Kiffin traded in.

This is Pete Golding’s program now, and he swiftly won ‘em over here, with what fans see as a more genuine personality. It didn’t hurt that Golding beat Kirby Smart in the playoff, then served Kiffin his just desserts.

Golding stressed this wasn’t “the Super Bowl,” but he couldn’t deny the moment.

“Is it sweet? Absolutely,” Golding said.

He kept looking over at Kiffin after every Ole Miss touchdown.

Yes, Chambliss felt the emotions of this game.

"This one meant a lot more than other games,” Chambliss said piling up 363 passing yards and two touchdowns, plus a game-winning score on the ground.

“The coaches that were here and are now at LSU, some of the players, as well, so there's a little bit more to it. So, yeah, I'm really happy I got the win. I wanted this one really bad, and our team did, too. Just so proud of them."

When Kiffin jetted off 10 months ago, fans gathered at the airport to give him middle-finger salutes. When the clock hit 0:00 on his return, Ole Miss made sure to troll him.

The stadium DJ played “Callin’ Baton Rouge” and “Neck.” Normally, that’s LSU’s theme music. Ole Miss turned it into a diss track.

“I’ll just close up saying, congrats to those guys,” Kiffin said. “They played really well. They deserved to win.”

Rebels fans couldn’t have been happier to see him go. They don’t want Kiffin here anymore.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.