Lane Kiffin's foolish pride blinded him to what he had at Ole Miss
We’ve reached the point of this Shakespearean tragic comedy where a single, undeniable question must be asked.
Was it foolish pride that prevented Lane Kiffin from seeing what he had at Ole Miss — or worse, did he even believe it?
Either way, the entire college football world is now an Ole Miss fan. Everyone is on board.
‘Sip on that, Lane Train.
“ I don’t want it to end ,” new Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding said after the Rebels wrote another chapter of this quickly evolving and beautifully blossoming middle finger of a College Football Playoff opus from Ole Miss to all things Kiffin.
Two games up, two games down. And two more to go before this sublime soliloquy is complete.
The universe has spoken, and let’s just say it’s not a big fan of Kiffin.
'(Bleep) Lane Kiffin!' Ole Miss fans curse ex-coach in waning seconds of CFP win
Toppmeyer: How can Ole Miss get revenge on Lane Kiffin? By proving him wrong
In one crazy unthinkable night in the French Quarter, all the wrongs of the last month that felt like 10 years to the betrayed and bewildered Ole Miss community, have one by one been resolved with the sheer, indomitable force of it’s about us, not you.
It’s about a former Division II quarterback, and the assistant coach who recruited and developed him in such a short time this offseason.
Ole Miss offensive coordinator — wait, or is that LSU offensive coordinator? — Charlie Weis Jr. recruited Trinidad Chambliss as a backup to starter Austin Simmons (Kiffin’s long-running, five-star project), and then got Chambliss ready to play when Simmons was injured in the second game of the season.
Now Chambliss — not Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza — looks like the guy who should be hoisting the bronze statue. Now Weis, not Kiffin, looks like the architect of this dangerously devastating Ole Miss offense.
Because he always has been.
Money matters: Big-spending Texas Tech 'will double down' after CFP loss to Oregon
'This is our moment.' Miami makes CFP title case after Cotton Bowl upset of Ohio State
That’s the big misnomer of this story: Weis, not Kiffin, runs the offense and calls the plays at Ole Miss. Has since Kiffin took the job in 2020.
It was Weis who walked into Kiffin’s office at LSU last month, and told him — in the spirit of all great Shakespearean tragic comedies — he had deep, emotional conflict about leaving the Ole Miss players to fend for themselves in the CFP. Told Kiffin he couldn’t do it, and not that he wanted to help the Ole Miss players — but that he had to help them .
A 32-year-old assistant coach stepping forward as the only adult in the room, while a university and its former coach aired a bitter, publicly divorce for all to see.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told USA TODAY Sports that Weis will continue coaching Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal against Miami. But this story isn't just about the unique Weis dynamic.
It’s also about Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter, who stood firm in the face of criticism he was willfully tanking the greatest season in school history out of spite. He wasn’t letting Kiffin coach this team in the CFP, and you better believe that reality — in Carter's heart of hearts — was the baseline factor for every single move he made during the separation process.
This wasn’t about Kiffin recruiting the Ole Miss roster as the LSU coach, it was about Kiffin walking away from a job that would pay him whatever he wanted, and — in this new era of player procurement — could produce a national champion just as easily as LSU could.
Kiffin’s decision was a slap in the face to Ole Miss. There’s no chance he was coaching this team in the CFP.
So Kiffin walked away from a team that’s now two wins from winning the whole damn thing — for a program that just fired a coach for winning 34 games in three and a half seasons.
It’s about Golding, the career Group of Five and NCAA lower division assistant that former Alabama coach Nick Saban hand-picked to run his defense in Tuscaloosa. Kiffin eventually hired Golding at Ole Miss in 2023, and it should come as no surprise that a defense that couldn’t get off the field in Kiffin’s first three seasons, is a critical component to 34 wins since.
So yeah, it wasn’t that difficult for Carter to see what he had in Golding after Kiffin decided to drop everything he had built and leave for LSU. Wasn’t a stretch to see what could be in raging storm of what is.
It's about a loyal and unwavering Ole Miss community and its deep-pocket boosters, who did everything Kiffin wanted and built an NIL war chest for Kiffin to compete with the likes of LSU. No one in the SEC was going to outspend Ole Miss, and frankly, no one did.
It was simply a matter of Kiffin building a product that attracted elite players, and when he finally did and had the program primed for greatness, ego and the desire for more finally got the best of a coach who had turned around his wayward life off the field within the safe embrace of Oxford.
But this Shakespearean tragic comedy isn’t over, everyone. Not by a long shot.
Profound loss has been followed by restoration. Elite, high-status characters have been humbled with magical (CFP) moments.
The only thing left is the cyclical nature of life. Death to joy, despair to rebirth.
The entire college football world is an Ole Miss fan now, united in its desire to see one man get his just comeuppance.
A villain by necessity, a fool by heavenly compulsion.
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: Ole Miss CFP run shows Rebels didn't need Lane Kiffin after all
