Last season, Lane Kiffin had a great chance to win a national title with Ole Miss after leading the Rebels to a historic 11-1 regular season and securing the program’s first-ever berth in the college football playoffs. But just before the CFP began, he accepted LSU’s offer. In hindsight, Kiffin wants to change a few things about how everything panned out.

“I think I would have just come in and said, ‘Okay, I’m leaving.’ I’m very appreciative of everything,'” Kiffin said on Pardon My Take when asked if he’d do anything differently. “You know, I spent a lot of time right there fighting to coach the team, trying to keep everything together. Totally respect their decision… I get it, but I was trying so hard to keep that together, like, ‘Hey, let us all coach. Let this whole thing, you know, let’s see if we go in the whole thing.'”

“Obviously, that didn’t happen that way, which then created a lot of it, the whole night and morning of that, and then what was going to happen. The team meeting move back, all the things that went with it, and then you couldn’t have a normal team meeting, because that time got into all that, naming Golding the head coach,” added Kiffin. “I mean, I don’t know how much it would have saved, just going in and saying, instead of trying to say, ‘Hey, I really want to.’ ‘Hey, I’m not coaching; I’m taking the job.'”

Kiffin’s departure was highly chaotic, culminating in him being booed by furious fans at the Oxford airport as he boarded a private jet to Baton Rouge. He even faced heavy criticism from the national media after Kiffin stated he left Oxford to join a program where he could “win a national championship” while leaving one actively positioned to do just that.

However, there were reasons behind Ole Miss’s decision to prevent Kiffin from coaching the Rebels. Allowing Kiffin to spend two months inside the Ole Miss facility while technically serving as LSU’s head coach created a massive risk, as the Rebels viewed the Tigers as a direct, hostile SEC rival. Then, Ole Miss feared that Kiffin would use his unrestricted access to recruit his own Rebel players and staff to follow him to LSU.

Still, some players followed Lane Kiffin to LSU. But for Lane Kiffin, the timing didn’t help how things worked out, and some of it wasn’t in his control.

“Obviously, I wish the timing was different. There was no way around it,” he said.

Even Dabo Swinney supported Kiffin’s point, arguing that Kiffin was not a villain but rather a victim of the NCAA’s poorly constructed calendar.

“Professionally, I understand,” said Swinney. “He’s trying to get ahead of the calendar so he can be successful at the next job. He didn’t create the calendar.”

But that didn’t change the new LSU head coach’s feelings for his former team. And even the LSU AD says Ole Miss was right for not allowing Kiffin to coach the team through the playoffs.

LSU AD supports Ole Miss’ decision about Lane Kiffin

Ole Miss eventually fell short to Miami in the CFP semifinals. Along the way, Trinidad Chambliss led them to a gutsy victory over Georgia. In Kiffin’s mind, the result could have been different had he coached the tam.

“I wish that would have been allowed to happen. Maybe we would have won it all,” said the new LSU head coach.

Despite that, LSU AD Verge Ausberry admitted Ole Miss made the correct decision on Kiffin.

“I’d probably be like, ‘Nah, we ain’t doing that. No,'” said Ausberry to USA Today. “But that hand wasn’t dealt. If I’m Ole Miss, I probably would’ve made the same decision. I know LSU would’ve made the same decision. I don’t blame anybody.”

Ole Miss leadership believed Kiffin would naturally split his time building his future program in Baton Rouge. That’s why they decided it was better to hand full control to Pete Golding. Interestingly, this season, LSU and Ole Miss face off on September 19, 2026.