The joke writes itself, and on Saturday, Lane Kiffin was the punchline. He ditched the Ole Miss Rebels, a playoff-ready team, for one that he felt was national title material and $13 million per annum, only to be humbled. The marginal 32-24 loss stings, but Kiffin thinks it wouldn’t have mattered to everyone as much if it were a different team. Like the former No.1 Ohio State Buckeyes, for instance. 

“If it wasn’t for the name, Ole Miss, and if it was more of a traditional name that we were playing, we hadn’t coached at before, how would everybody be feeling if, in your third game of your first year of a program, you went to Ohio State and came all the way back?” Kiffin asked. “The quarterback didn’t play very — ours didn’t play very well, and theirs played lights out. I’m sure after three games, he would be named the Heisman winner.” 

Kiffin made his feelings known during Wednesday’s SEC Football Coaches Teleconference. He insists he and his Tigers wouldn’t have received such attention and viewership if he had coached a different school.

“So, I think when you look at it that way and say, OK, man, their Super Bowl, then all the stuff around it, all the energy in the stadium, everything, and we’re right there at the end with multiple chances to win the game,” Kiffin added. “We got to learn from that and finish when we’re in that type of situation again.”

However, this showdown was always meant to go down in history for the severity of his actions last season. At Oxford, Kiffin built a team that held an 11-1 regular season last year. Their national title chase seemed within reach when the Rebels, for the first time in their history, clinched a playoff berth.

Kiffin was the most revered man among fans. So when he betrayed them and his team and then tried to sabotage their chase further by attempting to poach players and coaching staff, he laid the foundation for the intensity of the Week 3 clash.

The Rebels had a point to prove. Their fans too, 70,033 to be exact, drove out to fill the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to its brink. The game drew 11 million views. As for his team’s performance, their loss was a collective result. The Rebels took a 17-0 lead by the end of the first half before losing their momentum briefly.

The Tigers shot them down with 17 points to tie the game. However, Sam Leavitt couldn’t deliver when it mattered the most after Ole Miss took an eight-point lead late in the fourth quarter. The stadium was not just celebrating the Rebels’ victory but also gloating over Kiffin’s loss.

Immediately after the loss, he credited the stadium’s attendance and atmosphere with bringing out the energy he despises so much this week. The Rebels fans may not thank him, but Kiffin is more than welcoming of their unspoken gratitude.

“I think you walked into a storm,” he told reporters. “That’s what happens a lot of times in these games. You see it all the time with college football. You walk in, it’s a buildup. The stadium was full an hour early, so I guess I had to leave to get them to do that. So, you’re welcome.”

Kiffin may think he has done the Rebels a favor with and without his presence. It is time that the Tigers benefit from him. Despite the expectations of a national championship at Baton Rouge, the point remains that Kiffin is still early in the process.

The team will likely begin to take shape as the season progresses. However, in the SEC, a few losses are enough to rule you out of the playoffs, and LSU can’t afford over two.