LSU lures Lane Kiffin away from virtual playoff lock Ole Miss

Lane Kiffin left his one-loss Ole Miss team to become the coach at LSU on Sunday, taking over a program that has won national titles under three of its previous four coaches while saying he would have stayed to coach the Rebels in the postseason had he been allowed.

The move comes two days after No. 6 Mississippi’s victory over Mississippi State in the annual Egg Bowl rivalry game that all but guaranteed the Rebels a playoff berth when the bracket is announced Dec. 7.

“I was hoping to complete a historic six-season run with this year’s team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team’s incredible success and their commitment to finish strong,” Kiffin wrote in a social media post. He said Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter denied his request “despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”

“Unfortunately, that means Friday’s Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels,” he added.

Mississippi promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to succeed Kiffin. A former college player at Delta State in Mississippi, Golding is in his third season on the Rebels’ staff after serving five years as a top defensive assistant at Alabama.

“Coach Kiffin and I met yesterday, and he informed us that he is accepting the head coaching position at another school,” Carter said. “For our program to begin preparing for its future — both the short and long term — he will be stepping away from the team immediately.”

LSU trumpeted its new hire, with athletic director Verge Ausberry calling Kiffin the best coach in the country.

“Lane is a proven winner who has thrived in an era of college athletics that requires coaches to adapt and innovate,” he said. “His passion, creativity and authenticity make him the ideal leader to guide LSU into the future and consistently position us among the sport’s elite.”

Kiffin’s decision played out for days, contributing to an already-busy hiring cycle that saw several moves earlier Sunday, including three in the SEC alone. While players have transferred away from playoff-bound teams, a coach leaving a team that is 11-1 and all but certain to make the playoff is something new.

Kiffin and Carter had agreed last week that a decision had to be made this weekend as negotiations dragged on. Carter could not afford to wait until after critical recruiting periods in December and transfer periods in January had passed before starting his coaching search. The CFP begins on Dec. 19, the semifinals don’t occur until Jan. 8-9 and the final is Jan. 19.

Kiffin is considered one of the top offensive coaches in college football. He went 55-19 in six seasons at Ole Miss, success that made him a target of several major programs seeking new coaches. Kiffin also was pursued by Florida, which fired coach Billy Napier a week before LSU cut ties with Brian Kelly.

While LSU offered Kiffin a raise over his current $9 million annual salary, the decision presumably was about more than money.

LSU has a championship brand in multiple sports; state-of-the-art facilities; a rabid, regional fan following; and a legendary, historic home football venue in Tiger Stadium (nicknamed Death Valley), which towers over the banks of the Mississippi River and holds 102,000 spectators, 38,000 more than Mississippi’s Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The lone football coach of LSU’s past four who did not win a national championship was Kelly. He was fired in late October during his fourth season, a seismic development that also led then-athletic director Scott Woodward to resign under pressure from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.

Ausberry — a Louisiana native, former Tigers football player and long-time LSU administrator — led a search for a new coach that focused primarily on Kiffin. LSU offered Kiffin a seven-year contract with an average annual salary of around $13 million and pledged to ensure the football program has ample financial backing to pay players.

Kiffin has overseen one of the most successful stints in Ole Miss history, arguably exceeded by only Johnny Vaught, whose 25 seasons at Ole Miss included a six-year period from 1957 through 1962 during which his teams went a combined 57-6.

LSU is 247-84 with three national championships since the 2000 season, which was Nick Saban’s first with the Tigers. Saban won his national title at LSU in the 2003 season and went 48-16 in five years before leaving to coach in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. Les Miles, hired in 2005, went 114-34 with a national title in 2007. Ed Orgeron, who succeeded Miles during the 2016 season, went 51-20, highlighted by his 15-0, national-title winning campaign in 2019. Kelly, who was in the midst of a 10-year contract worth about $100 million at LSU, went 34-14 with the Tigers.