Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU on Sunday, November 30, 2025, two days after the Egg Bowl, with the Rebels 11-1 and about to make the first College Football Playoff appearance in school history. He had spent six seasons in Oxford. The split turned bitter because Kiffin wanted to accept the LSU job and still coach Ole Miss through the playoff, and athletic director Keith Carter refused. Ole Miss promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding, and Kiffin flew to Baton Rouge the next day. Saturday night is his first game back in Oxford.
Timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Oct. 2025 | LSU fires Brian Kelly; Florida fires Billy Napier. Both schools target Kiffin, and Florida State makes a quieter approach. |
| Nov. 2025 | Kiffin’s family visits Baton Rouge. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry publicly backs the pursuit. Ole Miss gives Kiffin a deadline to decide. |
| Fri, Nov. 28 | Ole Miss wins the Egg Bowl to finish 11-1. It is Kiffin’s last game as Rebels coach. |
| Sat, Nov. 29 | Night meeting with Carter. Kiffin says he is taking the LSU job and asks to coach the playoff with guardrails. Carter says no. |
| Sun, Nov. 30 | Kiffin announces he is leaving. Players confront him in his office about reports he told offensive assistants to be on the plane to Baton Rouge or lose their LSU spots. Ole Miss names Golding head coach. |
| Dec. 2025 to Jan. 2026 | Ole Miss beats Tulane in the first round and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal, then loses 31-27 to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal. |
| Sept. 19, 2026 | No. 7 LSU at No. 8 Ole Miss, Kiffin’s return to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. |
Why He Left
Kiffin told ESPN the decision was really hard and that his heart was in Oxford, but the reasons reported by CBS Sports and ESPN come down to three things. He wanted to win a national title the way his mentors Nick Saban and Pete Carroll did and believed LSU’s resources gave him a better chance. LSU’s offer was a seven year deal averaging more than $13 million a year, with an escalator that would make him the highest paid coach in the country if he won a championship. And LSU had the state’s governor pushing the deal publicly, which Kiffin read as institutional commitment Ole Miss could not match.
Why Ole Miss Would Not Let Him Coach the Playoff
Kiffin’s public statement said he asked to finish the season with guardrails in place to protect the program, and that Carter denied the request despite players also asking for it. Ole Miss’s view, reported by CNN and CBS, was that a coach who had already signed with an SEC rival would spend the playoff run recruiting Rebels players through the transfer portal. The school also learned Kiffin had pressured offensive assistants to leave with him immediately. The defensive staff, led by Golding, wanted to stay. As part of the separation, LSU agreed to cover Kiffin’s Ole Miss playoff bonuses if the Rebels kept advancing, which they did for two rounds.
What Happened Next
Ole Miss went further in the playoff without Kiffin than any Rebels team had gone in history, reaching the semifinal. Several assistants who planned to join Kiffin stayed through the playoff and commuted between Oxford and Baton Rouge, until Kiffin called two of them back before the Miami game. Golding kept the job full time and has Ole Miss 2-0 and ranked No. 8. Kiffin’s LSU debut was a 51-10 win over Clemson, and the Tigers are 2-0 and ranked No. 7. Both quarterbacks are new: Trinidad Chambliss stayed at Ole Miss, and Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt followed Kiffin to LSU.
The Return
ESPN announced College GameDay for Oxford in August, a month earlier than it usually names a site. Kiffin becomes only the second head coach in AP poll history to face a top 10 team he coached the previous season, joining Paul Brown, who coached Ohio State from 1941 to 1943 and faced the Buckeyes in 1944 with Great Lakes Navy. The game is 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.