Lane Kiffin has begun the next chapter of his journey as a head coach, signing a massive seven-year, $91 million contract to take the reins at LSU. And with that, the SEC, which has already dished out nearly $137 million in buyouts this season, gets another spark.
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However, what has stunned the college football world isn’t Kiffin’s arrival in Baton Rouge. It’s the way he left Ole Miss.
Make no mistake, head coaches take new jobs all the time, and coaches chasing greener pastures isn’t anything new. But someone of Kiffin’s stature leaving an 11-1, first-time CFP-bound team before the postseason was quite surprising. So much so that he was booed and flipped off by furious fans before leaving Mississippi.
Ole Miss fans had surrounded the Oxford airport as he boarded LSU’s plane, hurling insults. Kiffin later recounted that people even tried “to run us off the road” while he was driving to the airport with his son.
The animosity was high, even though it was not Kiffin’s decision to leave the Rebels before they played in the CFP. Keith Carter, the Ole Miss athletic director, was the one who refused Kiffin’s request to coach the side through the playoffs.
Urban Meyer gave his veteran perspective about the coach’s exit in the latest edition of The Herd. The legendary Gators HC acknowledged the uniqueness of this situation. “It’s unprecedented,” he said, because coaches don’t leave a team on the doorstep of the College Football Playoff.
Meyer pointed out that when he left Utah for Florida, the Utes welcomed him back for one more game. “I met with the players… they were good enough to say, ‘Come on back,’” he recalled. But Kiffin leaving at such a crucial juncture makes him “a whole different animal,” said Meyer.
“He’s going to an in-conference rival, and he’s walked out on players that gave him everything they got,” he added.
And for Meyer, that’s where the real heartbreak lies. He admitted that he had mixed feelings as he watched the saga unfold.
“My heart hurts for those players,” added Meyer, noting that the Rebels had just finished “the best season in the history of Ole Miss” and were talented enough “to go make a run deep into the playoffs… and he’s gone.”
“He’s going to an in-conference rival and he’s walked out on players that gave him everything they got.”@colincowherd and @CoachUrbanMeyer discuss Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU before the College Football Playoff pic.twitter.com/UTrfxiPICQ
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) December 1, 2025
Meyer also made it clear that he doesn’t think Kiffin’s decision was a money grab. He has long believed Kiffin is wired more competitively than financially. So if he walked away, Meyer said, “In his heart, he must think it’s going to be an easier path or a better path to win a national title.”
Even more surreal for Meyer, however, was that Kiffin didn’t even get to meet his players before leaving. It added the chaotic optics of a stunning exit.
Colin Cowherd, meanwhile, framed the moment inside the larger story of Kiffin’s career. “You hire Lane Kiffin… It’s not because of charm school,” the analyst joked, reminding everyone how Tennessee fans once “wanted to burn his house down” and that Kiffin quite literally got fired on a tarmac at USC.
“You hire Lane Kiffin, it always ends bizarrely,” concluded Cowherd.
So, LSU fans can enjoy the honeymoon as much as they can. Because, as history suggests, the moment a better opportunity knocks on Kiffin’s door, he opens it before the second knock. Don’t be surprised if we see him coaching in the NFL soon.
