Lane Kiffin had the entire state of Mississippi up in arms after leaving Ole Miss midseason to take the vacant head coaching job at LSU. Some even believe the move shows shades of his father, Monte Kiffin.
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Monte Kiffin, who passed away last year at 84, coached in both college and the pros for nearly 60 years, from 1966 to 2023. And he moved around a lot during those six decades. He made 16 different stops across the NFL and NCAA throughout his career. That has to be some sort of record.
And it seems his son Lane might be looking to top it. Maybe they even made a bet about who could coach in the most states. That’s how some, like Hall of Famer Cris Carter, see it.
On an episode of his podcast, Fully Loaded, Carter said Lane is a “mover” just like his dad.
“He’s a mover. He keeps talking about his dad… Lane keeps bringing up, ‘That’s what Monte did.’ His whole coaching career. He went around everywhere. He coached everywhere. College, pro. He kept moving around. And that’s his role model, that’s what he’s going to do,” Carter said.
Lane’s new head coaching gig at LSU, which will pay him $91 million over seven years, will be his 10th different stop as a head coach or assistant coach across the college and NFL ranks. Not quite up there with his dad, but he’s made his way around the country. Especially the SEC: Lane Kiffin is the only person ever to become the head coach of three different SEC programs.
Carter also knows a thing or two about the Kiffins. From 1991-1994, while he was starring as an All-Pro wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, Monte Kiffin served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under Tony Dungy. Carter later played against a lot of Kiffin defenses when the latter took the DC job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996.
“And I’m fortunate enough that his dad coached in Minnesota for a long time with Tony Dungy. Coached linebackers, defensive coordinator. I played a lot against him in Tampa. Became very familiar with him. Saw him one of his last public appearances there at the Hall of Fame before he passed away.”
Kiffin held that Tampa job for 13 seasons from 1996-2008, by far his longest tenure with any single franchise or program. His next closest was that stint with the Vikings that lasted four years.
And while Kiffin was in Tampa, he masterminded the evolution of NFL defenses with his groundbreaking “Tampa 2” scheme (where the linebacker drops into the center deep zone, aka “the hole”, effectively a disguised Cover 3), which helped the Bucs win the Super Bowl in 2002.
Lane Kiffin has surpassed his father in some ways: Monte was only a head coach once, for North Carolina State in the early 1980s. However, Lane has not been able to match the impact and overall success of his father’s career. Not to mention those 16 stops across the country while he was at it.
There is still time, though.
