For the last 48 hours, Lane Kiffin has become the most polarizing person in all of America, or at least in the Southeast and South Central. The new LSU Tigers head coach deserted the Ole Miss Rebels on the doorstep of the Playoff for a conference rival, which left Urban Meyer hurting for those players.

On December 1st, former Florida and Ohio State legendary HC Urban Meyer joined The Herd with Colin Cowherd and spoke about the Lane Kiffin situation and how it has affected the players and everyone involved.

Urban Meyer explained that Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU is unlike anything he has ever seen. Meyer compared it to when he left Utah for Florida but was still allowed to return and coach in the BCS bowl game. He said that his situation was very different because Utah Utes wasn’t in the same conference, and the players welcomed him back.

But he thinks Kiffin’s move is even wilder because he’s going to LSU, a team Ole Miss will face as a rival next year. It’s almost unheard of for a coach to leave a top-10 team on the verge of its best season.

Urban Meyer doubled down and said $9 million isn’t the driving factor behind the jump. He knows Kiffin is extremely competitive and cares about winning. Because of that, Meyer believes the only reason Kiffin would leave is if he thought LSU offered a clearer or easier path to winning a national championship. That, in Meyer’s mind, is the only explanation that makes sense.

He also shared how badly he feels for the Ole Miss players: “And, I mean, how do you, I don’t think he even met with the players. I heard the AD won’t let him. They just went through the best season in the history of Ole Miss. That team is prepared to go make a run deep in the playoffs, and he’s gone.

I mean, I had mixed emotions when I saw that happen. My heart hurts for those players.”

The players wanted Kiffin to finish what he started — competing for the program’s first natty. Unfortunately, the request was shut down by the AD, which makes sense from the AD’s point of view.

End of the day, Meyer thinks the players are the ones getting the short end of the stick.

More importantly, Meyer suggested that in a situation this huge and historic for the program. The players should maybe have some say in whether their coach gets to stay and finish the season with them. However, the troubles didn’t stop there for Lane Kiffin, they followed him all the way to the airport.

Lane Kiffin opens up about brutal airport chase scene

Things got pretty intense for Lane Kiffin when he was leaving Mississippi. He actually had to call the police for an escort to the airport because some seriously upset Ole Miss fans were following him. They were apparently yelling at his car and even trying to force him off the road. It sounds scary, especially because his son, Knox, was in the car with him.

Kiffin brought this up when he was introduced as the new LSU coach yesterday.

“I’m human. Even though you understand it’s the passion. You’re with your son, and you’re driving. And you’ve got to call a cop that you know so they’ll help you because you personally know them, because you are leaving the state.”

Fans were also waiting for him at the terminal, booing and yelling as he finally got on the plane to Baton Rouge. The whole exit was messy and anything but smooth until the plane touched down in Baton Rouge.

“Even on the plane down here, you’re kind of like ‘Man, we made this decision. But God I really —’ you know? We landed last night and when I saw the board there. And I saw the leadership and I felt the power of this place. Then we get out of the car and there’s the fans, just all of them out there at the airport. Then the cars drive by as you’re going to the office and you drive by Tiger Stadium. And it’s lit up, and you’re like, ‘I absolutely made the right decision.’ And it all went away.”