After bolstering the Ole Miss Rebels and putting them back on the map, Lane Kiffin’s swan song went sideways. Just as he walked out the door, the locker room dragged him up. Kiffin claimed the team wanted him to steer them into the playoffs, but three Rebel players jumped in together to say that never happened. 

“That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this,” Ole Miss linebacker Suntarine Perkins exposed Kiffin on December 2, resharing the head coach’s statement.

“My request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance,” wrote Kiffin in his parting message.

“Despite the team asking me to keep coaching. I think everyone that was in that room would disagree,” Ole Miss offensive lineman Brycen Sanders was even more forthright.

“Fax this was not said from anyone‼️,” offensive lineman PJ Wilkins shared his take, retweeting Sanders’ claim.

Not just the college football players, even the Ole Miss basketball team pounced in the race to drag Kiffin down.

“A ‘go to hell LSU’ followed by a ‘go to hell Lane Kiffin’ was yelled during the national anthem of this Ole Miss basketball game,” reported Brian Scott Ripee.

It dates back to the time when Brian Kelly’s departure from Notre Dame for LSU in November 2021 caused a stir. His public narrative clashed with the reality experienced by his players, resulting in real-time social media backlash.

Back to Kiffin, his stock just took a nosedive in the locker room, and that might sting for Rebel fans who, not too long ago, had him up on a pedestal. Just a little more than a year back, the squad’s own signal-caller, Jaxson Dart, was hyping up the head coach like the sky was the limit. At 3-0, the Ole Miss Rebels looked like the real deal: not only playoff-bound, but national title contenders.

“I would say the only right character would have to be Yoda,” Dart said. “His knowledge. I’m constantly learning things from (Kiffin) day in and day out.”

In Mississippi, Kiffin flipped the Rebels from also-rans into serious national contenders. After a 5-5 2020 season, the program found its rhythm and quickly became one of the SEC’s elite. Since then, Kiffin’s Rebels rolled up a roughly 55-19 record overall. And across his whole college-head-coach career, he’s sat at an impressive 117-53 record.

Kiffin, the self-declared ‘Portal King,’ hauled in 25 transfers in the 2024 offseason, all in the name of bolstering the line-of-scrimmage and going beast mode on both sides of the ball. With players buzzing about a culture change, Nick Saban pulled up to remind them that Kiffin always had the chops to run the show.

“Lane Kiffin played a significant role in helping us win a national championship at Alabama,” said the GOAT. “He’s one of the brightest offensive minds and one of the best play callers.”

Still, that didn’t soften the hits coming Kiffin’s way.

Attacks followed as Lane Kiffin took the Baton Rouge route

After ducking off to Baton Rouge, Kiffin admitted he had zero clue how much the LSU Tigers are paying him. He straight-up told his agent, Jimmy Sexton, to keep the contract figures off his radar. This did not sit well with Paul Finebaum.

“I truly believe that is one of the most fraudulent things I have ever heard from a head football coach,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s First Take. “Nobody believes that because everyone in America knows what Lane Kiffin is making.”

With Kiffin out and a College Football Playoff shot on deck, quarterback Trinidad Chambliss said the Rebels are sold on Coach Pete Golding. They are not missing their old coach and believe Golding could steer them deep into postseason waters. 

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“After reconsidering tomorrow’s activities, I have decided to shift the focus back to where it belongs – the team,” said Golding as Ole Miss canceled its press conference to introduce the new head coach.

Kiffin tried to frame it like a last‑minute shock, but Ole Miss wasn’t having it. The school denied that the coach was blindsided until 8:30 a.m. on Sunday. But Ole Miss officials disputed the claim.

In case Kiffin was hoping to hit a fresh start, that’s hit a roadblock. Blake Baker gave him enough confidence to steer LSU to success. Under him, LSU went from 2023’s worst‑in‑decades defense to a No. 9-ranked unit in 2025.

According to the reports, just when Lane Kiffin stepped in, Baker had already interviewed for the Tulane Green Wave job. Losing their head coach couldn’t stop the hype train. The College Football Playoff committee didn’t dock the Ole Miss Rebels for the Lane Kiffin exodus.

Instead, they pushed them up to the No.6 spot. Is this a good omen?