Lane Kiffin on his move from Ole Miss to LSU: ‘No way to possibly do it better’

BATON ROUGE, La. – Lane Kiffin welcomed anyone driving into Baton Rouge via Interstate 10 East on Monday morning with a billboard at the Highland Road exit, the first exit at the city limits. He welcomed drivers again once they reached the Acadian Thruway/LSU exit with another billboard. Those walking around Tiger Stadium and peeking through the gates could see Kiffin’s image again and again, splashed across multiple screens throughout the concession areas.

It already felt like home for the new LSU football coach, only 24 hours into his tenure. So much so that Kiffin called good friend and former LSU national championship coach Ed Orgeron as Kiffin circled Tiger Stadium on Sunday night.

“I said, ‘This place just makes me want to talk like you right now,’ ” Kiffin said during his introductory news conference at Tiger Stadium on Monday. “We were in the car and the kids were in there and the coaches, they’re like, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m channelling Ed right now. I’m feeling him. I rolled down the window, and I was like, ‘Geaux Tigers’ to the fans. I called Ed and said, ‘I don’t know, man. I’m feeling you right now.’ He’s like, ‘Coach, you’re at the best place in America.’

“I feel that.”

Kiffin is more than aware he’s become a villain to the fan base he left behind at Ole Miss, and maybe even a villain all around college football … except in Baton Rouge.

Kiffin expressed this range of emotions to the media. The 50-year-old coach said “everything happened exactly how it was supposed to happen when it was supposed to happen” in terms of the timing in his career to leave Ole Miss for SEC rival LSU. But later, he added that the last 48 hours “in a lot of ways sucked,” given the upheaval within a Rebels’ program now on its way to a College Football Playoff appearance without him.

“It’s the only way I could describe it. It sucked for a lot of people,” Kiffin said. “And there was no way to possibly do it better than the way we did. From a timing standpoint, because it’s a bad scheduling system and how it’s set up. Eventually, hopefully it gets like the NFL where you can’t do that in the season and don’t have to make those decisions.”

Kiffin called the decision to leave Ole Miss during such an important moment within the history of the school “excruciating and difficult.” Kiffin said the final decision by Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter to deny Kiffin’s request to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff occurred Sunday.

“I had already made the decision at that point and informed them Saturday night that this is what we were going to do,” Kiffin said. “That was a really hard conversation with Keith. Really hard. … There’s disappointment in that, but how can we do the best – knowing that I’m going to be head coach of LSU for the future down the road, how could we do the best interest of the players and give the players the best chance to win and make a run at the national championship in the playoffs, in most likely, as I said, their most historic sporting event in the history much the state of Mississippi, a home playoff game? And it didn’t work out.”

Kiffin said he didn’t find out about the decision for him not to coach Ole Miss in the playoffs until about 30 minutes before a team meeting – a meeting to inform the players about what was happening with Kiffin, which excluded Kiffin.

“I hate that I didn’t get to explain to the players why, but I also totally respect and understand the decisions they felt they had to make for the program,” Kiffin said.

Kiffiin relived the scene of his departure from Oxford on Sunday afternoon, traveling to the airport to board the plane to Baton Rouge.

“You know, I’m human,” Kiffin said. “Even though you understand it’s the passion, you’re with your son and you are driving and you got to call a cop that you know so they’ll help you because you personally know them because you are leaving the state. You’ve got to call them because you’re driving with your son and you got to turn around. These people are screaming at you trying to run you off the road. I don’t know what they’re going to do.

“So that affects you. And that airport scene and all the things being said, I understand it. It’s the passion, but they’re saying that about you, that you thought you did a really good job for six years for them. That affects you.”

Then Kiffin, his family and the members of his Ole Miss coaching staff who are joining him at LSU landed in Baton Rouge. And the emotions took a sharp turn for him.

“When I got off that plane and I saw the (LSU) board (of supervisors) there and I saw the leadership and I felt the power of this place,” Kiffin said. “Then we get in the car, and as we’re driving out and there’s the fans just all of them out there at the airport, and their excitement and their passion. Then the cars drive by as we’re going to the office and you go by Tiger Stadium, and it’s lit up.

“And you are like, ‘I absolutely made the right decision.’”

Kiffin said the last six years of his life have been the best six years of his life, with his success at Ole Miss obviously playing a major role in his joy. But Kiffin said about LSU, “This place is different. Having watched this place for a long time and from the other sideline. This place is different, and that’s why we’re here.”

Kiffin said he spoke to several mentors about the LSU job, including Nick Saban and Pete Carroll. All of them pointed Kiffin to LSU, even though Kiffin only hinted at Saban’s approval. Kiffin said one of those mentors told him, “LSU is the best job in football.” Kiffin added that every mentor he spoke to said he would regret not taking the shot at LSU. Kiffin said he also spoke to Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, calling the conversation a “unique, great call.”

LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry made it clear Kiffin was the school’s primary target, saying, “The first name on everyone’s lips was Lane Kiffin.”

LSU on Monday released its term sheet with Kiffin, which the Athletic obtained. It includes an annual salary of $13 million on a seven-year deal through 2032, more than the $10.1 million per year that former LSU coach Brian Kelly earned.

If Kiffin is fired without cause, the buyout is 80 % of the remaining annual salary, with no offset if he were to land another job. That means the buyout to fire him after the 2026 season starts at $62.4 million. Kelly’s buyout is $54 million, but that includes a duty to mitigate, meaning Kelly is required to try to find coaching work to help offset that money owed to him. Kiffin won’t have that requirement if he is fired. Kiffin’s lucrative and coach-friendly contract comes one month after Landry railed against Kelly’s exorbitant contract and buyout at LSU.

Kiffin said four schools offered deals, and that those contracts didn’t really differ much in terms of money, even though Kiffin said he is unaware of the exact numbers within his deal.

The number that mattered the most to him was the pot of money available for the LSU players. Kiffin didn’t provide the dollar amount, which, according to Yahoo Sports, is around $25 million.