As anyone who has ever been through one can attest, breakups are hard.
The challenges and difficulties that come with them aren’t just emotional, but sometimes logistical, too. Just look at college football.
When a coach leaves or is fired by a school, it’s not just that individual who’s affected. It’s their family, of course, but also their staff and players. Do they follow them wherever they’re going? Do they stick around at a place where they’ve set down roots?
When Lane Kiffin left Mississippi for LSU in Nov. 2025 in one of the most intensely followed and debated coaching changes in the sport’s history, those questions about who would make the trip
with him from Oxford, Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana intensified, especially as the Rebels were preparing to compete in the College Football Playoff.
As Kiffin prepares for his highly anticipated return to Ole Miss on Saturday, Sept. 19, when the Tigers take on the Rebels in a Week 3 game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, here’s a look at who ended up with what in the Lane Kiffin-Ole Miss divorce:
What LSU got
Lane Kiffin
A bit self-explanatory, but hey, for the sake of comprehensiveness, he’s on here.
Charlie Weis Jr.
The well-regarded offensive coordinator who called plays for Ole Miss’ explosive offenses in Kiffin’s final four seasons at the school followed him to LSU. Weis didn’t immediately join his boss, though. He stuck around to serve as the Rebels’ offensive coordinator during its run to the semifinals of last season’s College Football Playoff. The Rebels had a top-10 scoring offense in each of Weis’ final two seasons in Oxford.
Princewill Umanmielen
Somewhat surprisingly, only four players followed Kiffin from Ole Miss to LSU. In that quartet, though, are some difference-makers. Umanmielen was a third-team All-SEC selection last season after finishing third in the conference in sacks (with nine) and eighth in tackles for loss (13). In just two games this season, he already has five sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss. Outside of Kiffin, he may have had the messiest exit of anyone from Ole Miss to LSU. Earlier this week, Umanmielen was served court papers outside of LSU’s football facility related to a July lawsuit filed by Ole Miss, which alleges that the star edge rusher owes the school $550,000 because of his transfer to the Tigers.
Billy Glasscock
Glasscock played an instrumental role for Kiffin as general manager in the coach’s final two years at Ole Miss, a stretch in which the Rebels went 23-5. In his two seasons with the Rebels, Glasscock helped bring in the No. 1 (2024) and No. 2 (2025) transfer classes nationally, along with two top-25 high-school recruiting classes. In his first offseason at LSU, the Tigers landed the No. 1 transfer class.
TJ Dottery
After leading the SEC in tackles last season, with 98, the star linebacker made the trek with Kiffin to LSU, where he has made an immediate impact. Through two games, Dottery has a team-high 14 tackles.
Multiple assistant coaches
Among those who came with Kiffin from Ole Miss to LSU: run-game specialist/offensive line coach James Cregg, inside wide receivers coach Sawyer Jordan, co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Chris Kiffin (Lane’s younger brother), passing-game coordinator/wide receivers coach George McDonald, running backs coach Kevin Smith, assistant defensive line coach/pass-rush specialist Lou Spanos and quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens.
Juice Kiffin
There was ever so briefly a question of whether the Labrador retriever was actually Kiffin’s dog, but alas, Juice is with his owner now in Baton Rouge.
Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris
Redacted. For now, at least.
What Ole Miss got
Pete Golding
Shortly after Kiffin left Ole Miss, Golding was elevated from defensive coordinator to not just be the interim head coach for the Rebels’ impending College Football Playoff appearance, but be the program’s full-time head coach. The results so far have been strong. Ole Miss knocked off Tulane and Georgia to advance to the playoff semifinals, where it was a handful of plays away from beating Miami to make it to the national title game. This season, he’s off to a 2-0 start. Golding had served as the Rebels’ defensive coordinator in Kiffin’s final three seasons.
Trinidad Chambliss
While Ole Miss lost its head coach, it managed to hold on to its best player. After a breakthrough 2025 season, his first with the Rebels, he was granted an injunction in February that gave him a sixth season of college eligibility. He opted to stay at Ole Miss, though he briefly considered following Kiffin and Weis to LSU. “Those thoughts were there, but once we went with PG (Golding), it didn’t take me too long to decide,” he said to On3 Sports in May. “I was all Ole Miss.” Chambliss entered the season as one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy and has lived up to the hype thus far, with 623 total yards and six touchdowns in two games.
Kewan Lacy
Ole Miss’ other top offensive weapon opted to stay, as well, with Lacy returning to the Rebels after a stellar sophomore season in which he rushed for 1,567 yards and 24 touchdowns in his first season with the program after transferring in from Missouri.
Will Echoles
The Rebels’ retention efforts weren’t limited to the offensive side of the ball. Echoles was a first-team All-SEC selection after the star defensive tackle led all Power Four players in quarterback pressures (39) and defensive stops (35) last season.
Several assistant coaches
Given that Golding was on the Ole Miss staff for the previous three seasons, he was able to hang on to a healthy percentage of the Rebels’ assistants, a group that included defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, offensive line coach/running-game coordinator John Garrison, defensive line coach Randall Joyner, quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, outside linebackers coach Matt Kitchens, safeties coach Wes Neighbors III, special teams coordinator/nickelbacks coach Jake Schoonover and inside linebackers coach Jay Shoop.
Austin Thomas
After Glasscock left with Kiffin for LSU, Ole Miss was able to pluck someone from the LSU front office to fill its general manager vacancy. Thomas had spent the previous two seasons as the senior associate athletic director for football administration at LSU, where he had previously served as the general manager in 2021. Thomas had experience at Ole Miss, too, having been the football chief of staff and sport administrator from 2022-23.
Frank Wilson
It wasn’t Brian Kelly who Kiffin replaced at LSU, but technically Wilson, who was elevated to interim head coach after Kelly was fired with four games remaining in the regular season. A New Orleans native, Wilson had been an assistant at LSU under Les Miles, from 2010-15, and Kelly, from 2022-25, and left to become Ole Miss’ running backs coach about three weeks after Kiffin was hired by the Tigers.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who got what after Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss football for LSU? What went where in breakup
