{"id":83291,"date":"2025-11-30T15:09:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=83291"},"modified":"2025-11-30T15:09:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:09:51","slug":"lane-kiffin-leaves-the-house-that-he-built-lsu-gets-its-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/11\/30\/lane-kiffin-leaves-the-house-that-he-built-lsu-gets-its-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Lane Kiffin Leaves the House that He Built: LSU Gets Its Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lane Kiffin has officially announced that he\u2019s leaving Ole Miss for LSU after a team meeting with his players on Sunday morning. He\u2019ll become the 33rd<\/sup> head coach of the LSU Tigers. Kiffin was expected to decide between Ole Miss, LSU, and Florida. Once Florida reportedly removed itself from the race, all signs pointed to LSU.<\/p>\n

Lane Kiffin Heads to LSU<\/h2>\n

The House That Kiffin Built<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most prevalent question regarding LSU\u2019s coaching search has centered around Kiffin\u2019s motivation to leave a winning program. Ole Miss is 11-1 this season and has easily cemented into the playoff field<\/a>. The Rebels are currently ranked eighth by the playoff committee. They\u2019d get a home game in the first round of the playoffs if they started today.<\/p>\n

Ole Miss hired Kiffin at the end of 2019, and he finished 5-5 in the shortened 2020 season. Since then, Ole Miss has won at least 10 games in three of the past four years. The Rebels won 11 games in a season for the first time ever in 2023. Kiffin has won at a level that\u2019s unprecedented in recent history at Ole Miss, turning it into a perennial playoff contender.<\/p>\n

Considering the heights that the Rebels have reached during his tenure, it would have to be tempting to stay and build a legacy. One of Kiffin\u2019s biggest critiques has been his willingness to jump from program to program. He could have stayed at Ole Miss and been revered as a legend. A national championship would, in all likelihood, lead to a statue in his likeness.<\/p>\n

The Deciding Factor\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Simply put, LSU is one of the elite jobs in college football. Even in the transfer portal era, building teams starts at the high school level. Louisiana produces as much talent as any state per capita, and there\u2019s no comparable program in-state to compete with LSU. The Tigers have actually gained another commitment for the class of 2026 since Brian Kelly\u2019s removal. LSU\u2019s 2026 recruiting class is currently ranked 12th<\/sup> in the nation by the 247Composite <\/em>rankings with no coach in place.<\/p>\n

Kelly broke the Tigers\u2019 streak of three consecutive head coaches who all won national championships. Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Orgeron all won big in Baton Rouge. We\u2019ll always give credit for winning it all, but two of these coaches weren\u2019t exactly known as brilliant \u201cX and O\u201d wizards. External factors<\/a> can make things messy at times for LSU. But the enthusiasm, talent pool, and the administration\u2019s willingness to do whatever it takes to win is not matched by many places. Everything is in place to \/win at LSU if the coach\u2019s effort matches his resources.<\/p>\n

What it Means for LSU<\/strong><\/h3>\n

LSU held Ole Miss to 24, Alabama to 20, and Oklahoma to 17 points. The Tigers lost all three games. This season\u2019s LSU offense is as bad as we\u2019ve seen in this millennium and borderline unwatchable. We can point to several factors that contributed to its downfall. Garrett Nussmeier<\/a> hasn\u2019t been healthy, and the offensive line is historically bad.<\/p>\n

But the worse the personnel is, the better the coaching must be. Kiffin is unquestionably one of the best offensive coaches in the sport. Kiffin\u2019s teams consistently field competent quarterbacks and explosive passing games. He took a Ferris State transfer in Trinidad Chambliss<\/a> at quarterback and developed a starter with more 300-yard passing games than anybody.<\/p>\n

Speaking of transfers, Kiffin is a proven evaluator. Jaxson Dart<\/a> exploded in Oxford after questioning his job security at USC. Tre Harris<\/a> became one of the most productive wide receivers in the country after leaving Louisiana Tech for Ole Miss. He\u2019s also recruited at a high level defensively. Ole Miss had three defensive linemen drafted out of its school record eight draft picks in 2025. It\u2019s well within the realm of possibility that LSU has gained its best combination of a tactician and recruiter since Nick Saban.<\/p>\n

But at What Cost??<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The details of the contract are reportedly around 90 million for seven years, which would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football. There are also reports that LSU has made guarantees regarding the funds available for NIL on a yearly basis. As mentioned earlier, Kiffin has shown that he’ll succeed in the portal if he has the means.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more apparent than ever that Kiffin\u2019s staff is as important to LSU as the head coach himself. His highly respected defensive coordinator, Pete Golding, is apparently staying in Oxford, according to CBS Sports. This leaves the door open for Kiffin to retain Blake Baker. Baker will likely field interest from programs as a head coach. Kiffin\u2019s 32-year-old offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, Jr., would be more likely to follow him to Baton Rouge than Golding.<\/p>\n

Was it All Worth It?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

College football\u2019s schedule does not allow graceful exits from teams. Coaches are getting fired earlier in the season than ever before to allow programs to move forward. Successful coaches like Kiffin and former Tulane, now Florida coach Jon Sumrall, are likely in playoff contention. Kiffin\u2019s messy exit from Ole Miss during a playoff run will always follow him.<\/p>\n

Although he built a winner in Oxford, he could build a monster in Baton Rouge. We\u2019ll acknowledge that the days of dominant programs that ran the sport like Alabama and Georgia are gone. But sustaining a playoff-level program should come easier at LSU than it did at Ole Miss. Sure, he can make the playoffs at Ole Miss. However, winning a national championship is a different discussion. There\u2019s less doubt about that at LSU.<\/p>\n

LSU\u2019s last two championship coaches were eventually fired. Both Miles and Orgeron came into a program that was well-stocked and built to win. Kiffin comes into a different situation. The challenge for Kiffin will be to build the program to a championship level and avoid the regression of his predecessors. If so, he could elevate himself to the unquestioned elite of the college football world.<\/p>\n

Main Image: [Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lane Kiffin has officially announced that he\u2019s leaving Ole Miss for LSU after a team meeting with his players on Sunday morning. He\u2019ll become the 33rd head coach of the LSU Tigers. Kiffin was expected to decide between Ole Miss, LSU, and Florida. Once Florida reportedly removed itself from the race, all signs pointed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4690,"featured_media":73958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17,35582],"tags":[729,32566,35738,495],"class_list":["post-83291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-ole-miss-rebels","tag-brian-kelly","tag-charlie-weiss-jr","tag-john-sumrall","tag-lane-kiffin"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83291"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83297,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83291\/revisions\/83297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}