Last November, as conference championship matchups were getting determined, the Heisman Trophy race was coming into focus and teams across the country continued their push for a spot in the College Football Playoff, the collective attention of the college football world was largely fixated on one man.
Lane Kiffin, as he has a gift for doing, became the sport’s central figure for weeks in the final stretches of the 2025 regular season. As his Ole Miss team was embarking on the program’s best season in generations, Kiffin was being connected to the vacant jobs at LSU and Florida, both of which viewed him as their top target.
It led to weeks of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation, of Kiffin fielding and largely avoiding questions about his future while
he was coaching the Rebels for what would ultimately be the final weeks of his six-year tenure at the school.
The attention was warranted. Kiffin had led Ole Miss to heights it hadn’t reached since the sport integrated and if he left for the Tigers or Gators, it threatened to significantly alter the balance of power in the SEC.
But, because it involved Kiffin, the path to his final decision was seldom straightforward.
As Kiffin prepares to return to Oxford, Mississippi when his No. 7 LSU team takes on No. 9 Ole Miss on Saturday, Sept. 19 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, here’s a look back at some of the wildest moments from last year’s Kiffin-to-LSU saga:
Most unbelievable moments from Lane Kiffin’s move from the Rebels to LSU
The boisterous governor
Before LSU’s coaching search could truly begin in earnest, the Tigers were already making waves — not because of an administrator or coach, but the most powerful man in the state.
In a news conference on Oct. 29, just three days after Brian Kelly was fired at LSU, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry lambasted Tigers athletic director Scott Woodward, who he said would not be selecting the school’s next football coach. Landry was most critical of the 10-year, $95 million contract Woodward gave to Kelly, which resulted in a $54 million buyout after the coach was fired eight games into his fourth season at the school.
"Maybe we'll let President (Donald) Trump pick it," Landry said. "He loves winners. You know, I'm not going to be picking the next coach, but I can promise you we're gonna pick a coach and we're gonna make sure that that coach is successful. We're gonna make sure that he's compensated properly, and we're gonna put metrics on it because I'm tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill."
Landry’s comments came amid something of a power vacuum at LSU, which did not have a full-time president at the time and whose athletic director, Woodward, would be ousted the day after Landry’s remarks.
Landry’s ranting about guaranteed money and bloated contracts ultimately didn’t mean much. Kiffin ended up signing a seven-year deal worth $91 million — an average annual value much higher than what Kelly was receiving — in which he’s owed 80% of his remaining pay if he’s fired by LSU without cause.
The trips
With his Ole Miss team sitting at 10-1, and with the Rebels preparing to enjoy a bye week before their matchup against rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl, Kiffin’s family went on something of a scouting trip.
With both LSU and Florida interested in his services, members of the Kiffin family were whisked away in private jets to visit Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Nov. 17, and Gainesville, Florida, on Nov. 16.
The ultimatum
Part of Ole Miss’ bind with Kiffin was related to timing. After Florida fired Billy Napier on Oct. 19 and LSU canned Kelly one week later, there were weeks of chatter about whether Kiffin would leave the Rebels for either of those vacancies.
Ole Miss, understandably, grew tired of that noise and sought some clarity. According to multiple reports, the university had given Kiffin a deadline of Nov. 28, the day of the Egg Bowl, to make his decision. Kiffin refuted the reports, saying on “The Pat McAfee Show” that they were “absolutely not true.”
Rebels athletic director Keith Carter later said a decision on Kiffin’s future would come the day after the Egg Bowl, on Nov. 29, though true to form, it wasn’t until the day after that, Nov. 30, that Kiffin officially left for LSU.
The confrontation
As Kiffin walked off the field for what would be the final time as Ole Miss’ coach, following a 38-19 Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State, he didn’t do so quietly.
Before heading into the tunnel, Kiffin angrily confronted On3 Sports reporter Ben Garrett, who during a podcast had discussed Kiffin’s potential exit by quoting a Ludacris lyric about how you "Can't turn a [expletive] into a housewife. [Expletives] don't act right."
During his post-game news conference, Kiffin described Garrett’s choice of words as “bush league.”
“I don’t even know your name,” Kiffin said to him.
Garrett told ESPN that Kiffin called him the next day to apologize — and addressed him by name.
The negotiation
If Kiffin were to go to LSU, there were still questions about how exactly that exit would go. Namely, would he stay around to coach Ole Miss during the College Football Playoff?
Kiffin had expressed a desire to stay and LSU had no problem with it, rightly viewing a playoff run as an extended infomercial for its splashy, new coaching hire. For those same reasons, though, Ole Miss leadership viewed it as a non-starter. If Kiffin were to leave the Rebels, he would be gone and a new coach would be appointed to lead the team in the playoff, something the two sides continued to discuss after Kiffin had informed school brass that he was taking the LSU job the day before the move was announced.
It had gotten so tense that Kiffin, according to On3 Sports, was “essentially demanding” to finish the season with Ole Miss while threatening to poach the Rebels’ roster and staff if he couldn’t.
In a statement announcing his departure, Kiffin said he had wanted to continue coaching the team, but that the request was denied by Carter despite Kiffin’s claims that the team had asked the athletic director to allow Kiffin to continue leading them. According to a report from ESPN last December, though, Ole Miss players were more concerned about their position coaches staying and had “grown tired of the drama surrounding Kiffin.”
"(Kiffin) had an opportunity to coach in the playoff, and that would have been to stay at Ole Miss, and he chose not to do that," Carter said to ESPN. "That's his choice, and I respect that choice. But then we had to make a choice, and talking with the team and spending time with them, I think they know they need coaches to make a playoff run.”
The angry hot yoga community
Shortly after Kiffin departed Ole Miss, hot yoga instructors and clients in the greater Oxford area vented their complaints about the coach, whose fondness for the form of exercise became famous during his Ole Miss tenure. One instructor expressed joy in a video that she’d no longer have to hear Kiffin’s complaints about her playlist every class.
Was it simply piling on a reviled figure immediately after he left and the wounds of his exit were still fresh? Sure. But was it also funny? Absolutely.
Juice-y gossip
In the days after Kiffin’s LSU move was announced, rumors began circulating that Juice, Kiffin’s Labrador retriever who had become a social media celebrity during his time at Ole Miss, was not actually his dog.
That chatter, at least to this point, appears to be unsubstantiated and that Juice is with Kiffin in Baton Rouge.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ultimatums and angry hot yogis: The craziest moments of Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss to LSU move
