Even two months into his $91 million journey at Louisiana, Lane Kiffin is unable to escape his past at Oxford. The discussion about his messy exit from Ole Miss’ helm still hasn’t lost its flair as Rebels’ DT, Zxavian Harris, provides his two cents on the 50-year-old’s move.

Since Harris was one of the players critical of Kiffin leaving Oxford the way he did, he took center stage during Wednesday’s NFL combine media availability and faced the elephant in the room head-on.

“The week before we played, they were telling me that he was trying to be in the top booth. Trying to, like, announce it, and knowing him since my freshman year, he’s just trying to troll, for real,” Harris said per A to Z Sports. “That’s how he and the internet work.”

The so-called rumors began circulating last year in mid-October, when the Gators fired Billy Napier. The rumors intensified significantly when,, just a month later, LSU fired Brian Kelly, positioning Kiffin as a top candidate for two of the SEC’s premier coaching vacancies. That’s when the Ole Miss players and the faithful started worrying a little bit, for obvious reasons.

Kiffin had a reputation for “jumping” for bigger opportunities. This was evident when he left Tennessee for USC in 2010 and FAU for Ole Miss in 2019. However, even after these past examples, the 50-year-old brushed it off with an optimistic and smart statement.

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“I’ve said it before, if programs want your coach, that should be looked at as an amazing thing and a great thing by your fans,” Kiffin said.

And even on the Pat McAfee Show on November 18, he explicitly denied reports that Ole Miss had given him an ultimatum to decide his future before the Egg Bowl. He called such claims “absolutely not true.” That was enough for the Ole Miss locker room to believe every single word Kiffin sugar-coated. Wide receiver Harrison Wallace III and tight end Trace Bruckler publicly stated that the rumors were a “tribute” and “kudos” to the team for winning games and handling their business.

But now Zxavian Harris revealed what was going on behind their backs.

“When Kiffin was there, he was telling us, like, almost every day, don’t believe the rumors,'” Harris said. “Like he’s not gonna leave, to keep us focused. But by the time it came, everybody was starstruck. He told us not to believe the rumors. We should have believed it, and he just left out of nowhere.”

A week before the Egg Bowl, Ole Miss AD Keith Carter took matters into his hands. He publicly stated that Kiffin had until the end of the Egg Bowl, after which he would need to make a decision. And even after accepting the LSU job, Kiffin still didn’t stop playing it dirty. Just because Carter already decided not to let Kiffin coach the Rebels during the 2025 playoffs, the former HC started threatening.

He reportedly attempted to use his remaining offensive staff as leverage. During this time, multiple players confronted Kiffin in his office on a Sunday. They demanded to know if their position coaches were being forced to leave. And Kiffin? He was very casual about it.

“I’m not making them go,” Kiffin told the players, per CBS Sports. “They can do whatever they want.”

It happened. Eight Ole Miss staffers followed Lane Kiffin to Louisiana. Because they trusted these denials, the players, including Harris, were shattered to their core.

“I was pretty upset,” Harris said. “A lot of people, like younger cats, they were there for Kiffin and stuff. And since Kiffin left, they were just heartbroken. But we got better towards the season ended.”

However, even after starting afresh with the Tigers, Lane Kiffin didn’t forget to nurture his frustration with his former workplace. And so, he took it out on the locker room by leaking contract details.

Lane Kiffin’s alleged revenge

Lane Kiffin’s anger for Ole Miss knows no bounds. It was all rooted in Keith Carter not allowing him to coach the Rebels in the playoffs. That’s why, after a month of starting fresh at Baton Rouge, someone allegedly leaked NIL contract details of his players back at Oxford. Ole Miss sources described the move as a “coordinated attack” and “hand-to-hand combat” designed to “destroy the locker room.”

And so it happened. Several star players entered the transfer portal immediately following the leak. This included standout linebacker TJ Dottery, edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen (who had previously re-signed with the Rebels), and wide receiver Cayden Lee. The authorities attempted to retain Umanmielen by holding him to his existing contract and sought to renegotiate with other “lowballed” veterans to stabilize the locker room.

But that wasn’t enough. By mid-January, Kiffin had secured 29 portal commitments for LSU. That included several former Ole Miss targets and players like four-star WR Winston Watkins. Ironically, there was no public record linking Kiffin to this action. However, the CSC launched an unrelated inquiry into LSU regarding NIL reporting for a single athlete in late January 2026.