Lane Kiffin lastly made his determination.
After weeks of public scrutiny and private consternation about his future and a Saturday that came and went without an announcement, Kiffin has finalized an settlement to develop into the next head coach at LSU.
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Kiffin simply completed his sixth season at Ole Miss. The Rebels are 11-1 and sure headed for a spot within the College Football Playoff after beating rival Mississippi State on Friday. LSU completed 7-5 after shedding to Oklahoma on Saturday.
In his assertion saying his departure, Kiffin mentioned he wished to coach the Rebels within the postseason however the faculty wouldn’t acquiesce to that request. He additionally claimed that Ole Miss gamers wished him to keep on as head coach even after taking the LSU job.
“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin wrote.
“I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year’s team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team’s incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everything into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern. My request to do so was denied by [Ole Miss athletic director] Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance. Unfortunately, that means Friday’s Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels.
“While I’m trying ahead to a brand new begin with a novel alternative at LSU, I’ll perpetually cherish the unbelievable six years I spent at Ole Miss and can be rooting onerous for the workforce to full their mission and convey a championship to Oxford.”
Lane Kiffin had a 55-19 record in six seasons at Ole Miss. (Randy J. Williams/Getty Images)
(Randy J. Williams via Getty Images)
As the hours ticked by on Saturday without a decision from Kiffin, it became clearer and clearer that he was likely headed to LSU. The school even made arrangements on Saturday night to send two planes to get Kiffin and his family from Oxford on Sunday.
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Defensive coordinator Pete Golding will be the Rebels’ next permanent head coach, according to numerous reports. Even though there were public pushes from media members and television personalities in recent days for Kiffin to coach the Rebels in the postseason while also heading to LSU and the coach himself said he had pushed to do the same, that never felt like a realistic scenario.
After all, the two schools are longtime rivals. And Kiffin has failed at balancing two jobs in the postseason before. Kiffin was hired as Florida Atlantic’s head coach at the end of the 2017 season and was set to stay with Alabama through the end of the Tide’s season. However, Kiffin was pushed out of Alabama by Nick Saban before the Crimson Tide played in the national title game.
Elevating Golding also prevents Ole Miss from having to scramble for an external search. As Kiffin’s decision lingered on Sunday, other teams in the SEC filled their job openings. Florida is making Tulane’s Jon Sumrall its next coach, Auburn hired South Florida’s Alex Golesh and Arkansas hired Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield.
Additionally, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea inked extensions with their schools over the Thanksgiving holiday. They had been seen as contenders to move elsewhere in the SEC.
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Kiffin’s coaching decision had played out very publicly in recent weeks and reached a crescendo in mid-November when family members visited both Gainesville and Baton Rouge in consecutive days as Kiffin also flirted with Florida. Kiffin continued to say that he wouldn’t comment publicly on the coaching search, but it became a dominant late-season storyline.
“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Kiffin as the next head coach of the LSU Football program,” LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry mentioned in an announcement saying Kiffin’s rent. “We shared when we began this search that LSU would secure the best coach in the country and Lane Kiffin is just that. Lane is a proven winner who has thrived in an era of college athletics that requires coaches to adapt and innovate. His passion, creativity and authenticity make him the ideal leader to guide LSU into the future and consistently position us among the sport’s elite.
“I want to welcome Lane and his family to Baton Rouge, and I’d like to thank our search committee, as well as our university and state leadership, for their critical support and counsel throughout this process.”
While each the Gators and Tigers have traditionally been extra profitable than an Ole Miss workforce that has gone over 60 years because it final received an SEC title, Kiffin has positioned this system above each faculties in recent times. Ole Miss has received at least 10 video games in 4 of the final 5 seasons and can set a faculty file for wins in a single season with only one extra victory.
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That success has come as Kiffin has develop into among the finest coaches at navigating the switch portal and Ole Miss has been among the finest faculties within the nation at modernizing its NIL funds to develop into a horny place for each transfers and recruits. The Rebels’ beginning quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, is a switch from Division II Ferris State and RB Kewan Lacy, the second-leading rusher within the SEC, is a switch from Missouri.
Golding, whose spouse is an Ole Miss alum and a member of the college’s college, has been at Ole Miss for the previous three seasons. He got here to Oxford after he spent 5 seasons as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.