Kiffin bolts Ole Miss for LSU

Football
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Looks like Kiffin will be headed to LSU. Lots of talk that he plans on pillaging Ole Miss’ coaches and players on his way out the door.

I feel bad for Ole Miss’ players and fans. They complete a fantastic season and are gearing up for a playoff run, only to have the rug completely yoinked out from under them while Kiffin says “I want more money, so see ya”. That’s just some bullsh*t, no matter what team it happens to.

I don’t ever want to hear coaches complain about how players have “no loyalty” to programs ever again. Why on earth would they when most coaches are simply mercenaries looking for the next massive payday?

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This was a decision that could’ve waited until the end of the season…the full season.

It’s just another example of a broken system.

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Yeah, the loyalty concept is long gone. Kids who’ve been to 4+ schools are highly unlikely to get degrees, unless the schools relax their minimum hours at the graduating school requirement.

When I read BYU is bringing in a G-league player in hoops, the only thing left is schools outbidding the NFL or NBA teams to allow a player to “go back to school”.

Why not?

I don’t know if Poeltl and Kuzma graduated. There’s a whole bunch of young guys in the NBA who’ve barely been to college, if at all. Work out a deal with the Lakers to let Luka joins the Utes… just for a couple games a year: BYU

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I don’t understand why he’d want to restart everything he built at Ole Miss at LSU. I guess I don’t understand the allure of LSU. IMO seems like a dumb move, but whatever floats his and his wife’s boat.

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The pitch for LSU is 3 of the last 4 HCs have won a natty, they have the resources to compete against any of the SEC powers, or tOSU, etc.

My reaction:

  1. Ugh
  2. I still love the Utes
  3. Some of my favorite family memories are going to bowl games. I’m going to enjoy this one, hopefully Vegas or San Diego. (Alamo would really make me think hard.)
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Ole Miss frat boys give Lane his 21 gun salute

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Kiffin: “I don’t know what it is about tarmacs…”

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This screwed Alabama when Saban waited. Everyone took Alabama’s players and DeBoer wasn’t able to get players to replace them other than Washington’s or Arizona’s. The way the system is setup you have to do it end of season before bowls.

Now, Kiffen raided coaches (which is normal) and recruits when he left UT for SC.

Ole Miss is never going to be what LSU. LSU can consistently win by just keeping players from Louisiana. LSU is the only game in town in Louisiana and it can still poach players from gulf of Alabama (very talented recruiting base and close to LSU than Bama or Auburn), Mississipi, Arkansas and Houston Texas. It’s in my eyes one of the best jobs when you get the right system and recruiting setup.

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Biggest part besides 7 year, nearly $100M contract was a commitment of $25M for NIL. He’s going to buy the best team out there (a la TTU, Ohio St., etc.) AND has fertile recruiting in state with little competition. He should be competing for natties more easily than Ole Miss AND loves the villain act and chip on the shoulder to get some of the players he needs.

Not saying I agree with it, but it is Kiffin, so this was expected (although 6 years at Ole Miss was a LONG time for him). This deal will blow up college football and there will need to be structural changes that probably include congressional intervention (see the sports bill coming up next week as a start).

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Bingo. Mississippi hasn’t been relevant for a Natty since pre-Civil Rights Amendment. LSU has as many titles in the 2000s as Ohio State. As the following article states; Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, LSU and Texas are the top 5 jobs in college football: College football's best coaching jobs: Which programs are set up to compete for future national titles? - CBS Sports

Followed by the next tier Notre Dame, Michigan, Oregon, USC, Florida, Oklahoma, Penn State, and Texas A&M. The next tier was Clemson, Tennessee, Miami, Florida State, and Auburn. So, clearly he jumped quite a few tiers there. Granted, if you look at the other post I made a month ago I think the best jobs are Iowa and Utah where fans are not insane and coaches are allowed to build solid programs that produce good outcomes for the team, fans, university and players.

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At least Urban stayed somewhat part-time to assist with the Fiesta Bowl back in 2004.

Feel bad for the Rebels. Been far behind the SEC powers for such a long time and finally one of the their greatest seasons is disrupted as they head into the playoffs.

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If Urban took the BYU job would you want him to? Or Colorado? He took a job with the rival. Kiffin gave them a good run and built the program back up. I think they were lucky to have him for as long as they did.

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Even with Eli, they only were 9-3 his senior year with a cotton bowl win.

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From Joe Posnanski today…

Thinking (too much) about Lane Kiffin

Our younger daughter is studying to become a psychologist, and I would imagine that one of the tenets of modern psychology is this: “The less time spent thinking about the ethics of Lane Kiffin, the better for your mental health.”

But I can’t help it. I’ve been thinking about Lane Kiffin way too much lately.

I’m pretty much out on college sports these days because I don’t have any idea what’s going on. I’m not anti or anything like that. I’m just out. I don’t know what schools are in what conferences, I don’t really understand the NIL thing, and I can’t get my mind around college teams having General Managers. College sports for me these days are what the VCR was for our parents in the 1980s. I get the concept, I appreciate the concept, but the clock never stops blinking 12:00, no matter what I do.

Still, Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU because God told him to — it’s funny how God so often tells people to take the most money — and then whining incessantly that Ole Miss didn’t let him coach in the college football playoffs has pierced my world.

“Leaving Ole Miss was extremely difficult,” Kiffin said.

“Extremely difficult decision, and in that, we tried every single thing possible to continue to coach the team through the playoffs and continue to coach the players. In the end, that was their decision and I totally respect that.”’

Narrator: He didn’t totally respect that at all.

Reportedly, he fought the school to the death, threatening to take the whole staff and top players with him if they didn’t let him keep coaching — and then telling coaches if they didn’t get on the plane with him immediately, they would not have a job on his LSU staff.

What a guy.

Look, I’m all for live and let live. If Lane Kiffin wants to chase money and glory at the cost of all else, that’s very much his business. He must be a helluva football coach because he’s been acting like this forever — and I mean FOREVER …

  • This is a guy who was so bad with the Raiders that Al Davis called him a liar and said he was a “disgrace to the organization.” Do you know how bad you have to be to disgrace THE RAIDERS organization?
  • This is a guy who coached at Tennessee for just one season before bolting for USC. Tennessee’s Athletic Director, Mike Hamilton, summed up the Lane Kiffin Era with a one-word gem: “Brief.”
  • This is a guy who was so despised at USC that they literally pulled him off the team bus after a game to fire him.
  • This is a guy who, when he was offensive coordinator at Alabama, took a job at Florida Atlantic before the College Football Playoffs, which so ticked off Nick Saban that he canned Kiffin before the national title game to “avoid distractions.”
  • This is a guy who coached Florida Atlantic to 11 straight wins and a Conference USA Championship and then immediately jumped to Ole Miss and didn’t coach in the Owls’ bowl game.

… and yet teams keep on hiring him. I mean, this time around, LSU AND Florida were both utterly desperate to get him. You would think that would have made the guy happy — he seems to love nothing more than to be wooed — but Todd McShay seems to believe that he was ACTUALLY holding out for the Alabama job, which, if true, is very funny.

Again, that’s Kiffin’s business. We are all searching for our place in life, right? If you feel good about abandoning your Ole Miss team before the playoffs — and, oh by the way, maybe having your first major success as a head coach* — then, OK, enjoy your new life in Baton Rouge until something better comes along (as soon as next year).

*For all the hype about Kiffin, his singular win was, I guess, Ole Miss’ 2021 Sugar Bowl victory over Baylor to move his team into the Top 10?

But what I can’t get over is Kiffin’s fury that Ole Miss didn’t let him coach in the playoffs. Why in the world would they let him coach in the playoffs? He has treated the school, the players, and the fans like dirt. He has publicly danced with multiple schools during Ole Miss’ greatest season in many years. He has acted the diva, suggesting one minute that he would stay, the next minute that he would go, letting himself be at the center of the “What Will Lane Do?” hype for as long as he possibly could.

Let him coach in the playoffs after he jumps ship for one of Ole Miss’ biggest rivals?

Are you serious?

Apparently, Kiffin is serious. And furious. I wish LSU all the best with this guy. They’ve got an unlimited amount of football money down there in Baton Rouge, and winning is everything, and it doesn’t seem like character is a necessary trait for successful football coaches, so it might just work out.

I’m not a betting person. But I wouldn’t bet on it anyway.

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I sort of misspoke when I implied that Kiffin didn’t want to complete the season as it was the school that decided to keep him from coaching in the playoffs. But is indeed a bad situation when schools can go after coaches in mid-season. Especially one in the same conference. Can see why Ole Miss resents him for leaving.

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