Lane Kiffin’s villain arc is about to reach its defining moment

If I were to have asked 100 college football fans their thoughts on Lane Kiffin prior to the 2025 season, there may have been close to as many different answers. He’s brash. He’s grown up. He’s come into his own as a coach. He’s the guy who said, “Get your popcorn ready." He’s the guy who had mustard bottles thrown at him upon his return to Knoxville. But if that question were repeated ahead of Kiffin’s first season at the helm of the LSU Tigers following his tumultuous departure from Ole Miss, there’d be a more common refrain: Lane Kiffin is a villain. 

That’s not the position Kiffin ever wanted to be in, or at least that’s how it seems. After his controversial exit from the Tennessee Volunteers and an ill-fated tenure with the USC Trojans, Kiffin worked hard to rehabilitate his image, showing growth as both a person and a coach as he bounced from offensive coordinator at Alabama to head coach at Florida Atlantic before taking the job at Ole Miss in 2020. But now, that perception has largely, from a national perspective, swung back in the other direction. 

“It goes back and forth a lot of times, I think,” Kiffin said, speaking to FanSided on behalf of Dr. Pepper Fansville. “And usually, winning has a lot to do with that. So when you get back on the field and start winning, I think it changes back into that a little bit. Sometimes the difference between a hero and a villain can be really, really small."

Two games into his LSU tenure, winning is already beginning to change the conversation. The Tigers opened the season with a dominant 51-10 win over Clemson before beating Louisiana Tech 45-14. Now 2-0 and ranked No. 7, LSU looks capable of contending immediately under Kiffin, just as he believed it could.

That doesn’t mean the villain label has disappeared, particularly with Kiffin preparing to return to Oxford this weekend. But it does reinforce the point he made before the season: In college football, winning has a way of changing how almost anyone is perceived.

"It's kind of funny if you think about stories or even movies when they're made. A lot of times they make the person, the hero, become the villain, then they become the hero again. If you look at coaches over time, some significant coaches — I won't get into who — but if you kind of look at them and you think about it, sometimes they make a job change, they're a villain. And then sometimes they win, and then they become the hero again.”

Lane Kiffin knows his reputation is somewhat earned, but it's not that simple

There’s a not-insignificant number of college football fans who would look at Kiffin’s words and simply see someone engaging in wishful thinking. After all, the brazen move to LSU this past offseason isn’t most fans’ — at least those outside of Baton Rouge — idea of heroic. And it might be hard to come back from. 

However, Kiffin has more often expressed a maturing sense of self-awareness. He’s someone who has spent years thinking and talking about his public image. It’s also true, however, that the LSU head coach isn’t blaming anyone else for how things have changed now and in the past. He seems to understand that the current criticism is at least somewhat warranted.

“I think a lot's earned. I think if you go back, it was poor decisions made in managing situations in the media, maybe early on in my career,” Kiffin said. “And then I think also, if you're going to change jobs and you're going to change jobs in the SEC, you're going to have a lot of criticism, and that comes with it. And that's OK. When you make changes, everybody's not going to understand. I believe I take risks. I believe that I'm also always trying to get new challenges in life in all areas. And that doesn't mean that I'm better than someone else or worse."

Kiffin undeniably grew substantially in Oxford as the head coach of the Rebels. He took over in the COVID season of 2020 after back-to-back losing seasons under Matt Luke. Kiffin went 5-5 in year one but quickly built Ole Miss into a transfer portal-driven machine. Over the next five seasons, the Rebels went 50-14 with three top-11 finishes in the AP poll. That doesn't include last year’s trip to the College Football Playoff semifinals, as Kiffin had already stepped away to take the LSU job. But make no mistake: That team was still largely constructed by him. 

Yes, he left in the middle of a CFP run. He played a tortuous game of "will-he won't-he" with Ole Miss fans in the process. As we talked about how his public perception has changed, Kiffin was honest that there were things about his exit from Oxford and his transition to LSU that he wishes had been handled differently.

“That's like asking, you know, would you change the way throughout a season that you called plays in a game, you know?” Kiffin said. “And so, as I look at things, I'm always trying to grow and evolve how we run our program and different things. So, certainly there were a lot of decisions that had to be made really fast and with different interviews and different things... As I look back, there's certainly things I would have done different. And sometimes, you try to do things right, you believe in the way that you're doing them and they don't work.”

As with anything in this sport, fans in Oxford certainly feel differently about Kiffin’s exit and how it was handled than the contingent in Baton Rouge. But now it's past time for speculation or parsing through every detail of the exit. Now it’s time for LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin to lead his team on the field — and the goal is to win, and to win a lot. 

The next step for Lane Kiffin at LSU: Winning

Whether fair or not, winning absolutely has a lot to do with the public perception of a polarizing figure like Kiffin. As he took the job in Baton Rouge, one that he described as “the best job in football” in his introductory press conference, winning had to absolutely be in mind. While SEC rivals, it’d be foolish to ignore the fact that the Tigers captured national championships in 2003, 2007 and 2019. Meanwhile, Ole Miss hasn’t claimed a national title since 1962, and their lone College Football Playoff appearance came with a team built and helmed by Kiffin (until the CFP itself, of course).

Even with another portal-loaded roster, though, nothing is going to be handed to Kiffin and LSU this season. There’s a target on their back. The Tigers aren’t the favorites in the conference, but they’re a viable playoff contender with elite-level talent — and, not to mention, a spotlight that’s firmly fixated on LSU both in the SEC and nationally. But that’s not changing anything about the new head coach’s approach, as he remains undaunted by the mounting pressure. 

“I just think I've felt that way for a long time, but I also work a lot and put a lot into every week and how we work,” Kiffin said. “I would probably put our work hours and preparation up against anybody in the country in any sport. And so, I think with that, I do that regardless of pressure or the way or being a villain or any of those things. That's just how I am.”

And they have been preparing. LSU was prepared to allow the “Portal King” to run buckwild, landing three of the top five transfers in the sport in QB Sam Leavitt, left tackle Jordan Seaton and edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen. They were prepared for an offseason getting things to coalesce.

That last part is what Kiffin is really ready for at this point. And two games into his tenure, LSU has delivered the kind of immediate validation he envisioned.

“This has been a lot in the offseason between the changes in the portal and everything. And we're really excited about it,” Kiffin said. “I think we got some great players and just excited to put them together. And then as the season goes, continue to improve too, which I think a lot of times as you see portal-heavy teams in that. In the first year of coming together with a heavy portal team, a lot of times you see them improve throughout the year because they haven't played together before.”

Kiffin said it himself: Winning can change how a coach is perceived. He’s also said several times in the past how hard he’s worked to mature, to shed some of his previously acquired baggage. Right now, though, he’s a villain again — and maybe the villain in college football. But most certainly to Ole Miss fans.

He has a team capable of winning a lot at LSU, and we’ll see if that’s enough to make this one of those stories where the villain becomes the hero. 

Lane Kiffin spoke to FanSided on behalf of Dr Pepper and his inclusion in Fansville Season 9.

This week, Dr Pepper debuted Fansville Season 9, featuring Lane Kiffin, LSU Head Coach, in a new role alongside storylines inspired by the highs, lows, and absurdities that define college football fandom. This season is centered on a simple truth: fandom never sleeps. Whether it's old rivalries, preseason optimism, or game-day superstitions, the obsession doesn't stop when Saturday ends. Dr Pepper's newest season reflects the year-round passion that makes college football unlike any other sport. 

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