Lane Kiffin didn’t stumble into controversy. He leaned into it | Opinion
This isn’t that difficult to decipher. And certainly not a complex, misunderstood personality flaw.
Lane Kiffin is a chameleon. And I say that with all love, and in the purest sense of the word.
He adapts to his environment .
He changes colors — or in this case, personalities — to fit his surroundings. There are times when it works, and times when you get sheer stupidity.
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Case in point: the Vanity Fair interview , and the bizarre, ugly extension of his bitterness toward Ole Miss .
The Chameleon knew hoity-toity Vanity Fair magazine was interested in profiling one of the most unique characters in all of sports. Knew Vanity Fair is a popular culture magazine that typically writes profile pieces on fashion or politics or people you just can’t ignore.
Or in this case, Kiffin.
So he threw on his jeans and white t-shirt and sat for a photo shoot in Tiger Stadium, a forlorn look on his face, right arm crossed over left side. A man and his kingdom.
Don’t believe it? The LSU football X account posted a picture of the photo shoot, and trumpeted the future profile.
Then Chris Smith, one of the best writers of our generation, spent a couple days with Kiffin, and The Chameleon opened up. Maybe a bit too much, or maybe exactly what he wanted because, you know, it is Vanity Fair and it is seen by the high rollers in New York City and Paris and Milan and Hong Kong.
So The Chameleon fit in, and brought up — without Smith asking, according to his interview on the "Paul Finebaum Show " — segregation in the South, and how it impacted recruiting at Ole Miss.
Kiffin told Vanity Fair when he was coaching at Ole Miss, top recruits would tell him, “'We really like you, but my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi.' That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great. ‘It feels like there’s no segregation, And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’”
Again, Smith didn’t ask Kiffin specifically, Kiffin offered it up.
“I wish it was some genius question I had asked him,” Smith told Finebaum. “But he volunteered the idea about grandparents not letting their kid go to Oxford, Miss.”
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The Chameleon, everyone, adapted to his environment and gave Vanity Fair what it wanted to hear.
Just like he did years ago as the coach at Tennessee , when he got into verbal spats with Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier. One was the coach for Tennessee’s biggest rival (Florida), and one was the guy Vols fans hated more than just about anything (Spurrier). Kiffin then left after one season, with burned bridges and 14 NCAA secondary violations in his wake.
The Chameleon adapted at USC, too, when he became the hip coach who did the cool things (just like his mentor Pete Carroll), but couldn’t pull it off on the field because the program was saddled with 30 lost scholarships from NCAA violations earned by the previous staff.
A couple years later, The Chameleon adapted at Alabama as offensive coordinator, when he stood in the shadows as the good soldier and took constant ass-chewings from legendary Tide coach Nick Saban. And made jokes about it.
After a brief stop at FAU, The Chameleon arrived at Ole Miss, where he started out as a social media ball of fire to build interest in the program — “Come to the ‘Sip” — but eventually settled into posting bible verses and motivation quotes. Had everyone believing he had grown both personally and professionally, and had found his wheelhouse.
Then he decided to leave Ole Miss, and when Ole Miss wouldn’t allow him to coach a national championship-ready team in the College Football Playoff, he held onto that bitterness — and it followed him all the way to Baton Rouge.
Then Vanity Fair came calling, and don’t kid yourself, Kiffin knew exactly what he was doing. He gets hundreds of interview requests every month, the fantastic publicity department at LSU sifting through what works and what won’t — and then offering up advice.
Ultimately, it’s Kiffin’s decision. He bit on Vanity Fair like one of those gators in the swamps below I-10 — and saw it for what it was worth.
Be the pop culture star, and dig Ole Miss at the same time. He accomplished both, and then turned chameleon to complete this wicked game.
He issued an apology , becoming who he should be, what he should do, once again.
The Chameleon always adapts.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vanity Fair met Lane Kiffin. Ole Miss paid the price
