Lane Kiffin bailed on his expected guest interview with ESPN's College Gameday crew on Saturday morning, which shouldn't come as any surprise to college football fans familiar with his gimmick. Kiffin can't commit to anything these days, whether it be remaining in Oxford to coach a likely College Football Playoff team, or taking softball questions from fellow CAA clients trying to revive his reputation.
Kiffin will be fine, eventually. Ole Miss knew what they were getting into when they hired him back in December of 2019, and we can only hope LSU understands the same.
Why Lane Kiffin bailed on ESPN's College Gameday
Kiffin posted a series of tweets on Saturday morning, claiming he was working rather than appearing on the nation's No. 1-watched pregame show prior to the SEC Championship Game. While we're not ones to doubt him, the timing of said decision is questionable to say the least.
The 50-year-old head coach has been under fire for leaving Ole Miss in the first place. The Rebels will play in the College Football Playoff, after all, which was said to be Kiffin's goal. Kiffin even tried to coach the team after leaving for LSU, something Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter wanted no part of. Kiffin then claimed the players wanted him to stay for the Playoff in a team meeting announcing his departure – a statement that has since been debunked by many of those very same players.
When Kiffin was told he wouldn't be able to coach the team in the Playoff, he then reportedly demanded any assistant coaches who were interested in joining him at Baton Rouge board a plane scheduled to leave last weekend. Since, he's allowed offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. to return to Oxford and call plays for Ole Miss in the Playoff, which ought to aid their CFP standing this coming week.
"We had been talking to Charlie about coming back and calling the plays, and Charlie was committed to that from the very first moment," AD Keith Carter told SuperTalk Mississippi. "Honestly, I think Charlie was put in a little bit of a tough spot with the way he was asked to go to Baton Rouge, but man, I could not be more fired up about having Charlie Weis back here."
So, as you can see, there are no softball questions for Kiffin. In fact, just about any probe into his departure is a losing battle he'd rather avoid altogether.
Why Lane Kiffin's departure from Ole Miss was so dramatic
Coaching departures are always awkward in college football. There's never a good time on the regular-season calendar to make such a move, and the next steps are even more challenging. Head coaches must gather commitments from assistants who will join them at the next campus, talk to the team in what's always an emotional meeting, call recruits and then pack up their things. Once they arrive at a new destination, they must talk to that team's commits and start recruiting new talent, including (in many cases) players from their former team. It's a mess.
What made Kiffin's departure even messier was the timing of the College Football Playoff – which Ole Miss will play in, while LSU will not – and the simple fact that the Tigers are an SEC rival. It's not like Kiffin took a job in another conference, after all. He chose a program right down the road, and plans to take some of Ole Miss' most talented players with him. Kiffin can tear down a program on the rise like Ole Miss even quicker than he built it up.
What Lane Kiffin bailing on Gameday says about him and LSU
Again, College Gameday's team of analysts weren't going to batter Kiffin with tough questions. If anything, they would've asked him about timing, not coaching in the Playoff, his message to Ole Miss players and how excited he is to be in Baton Rouge. Those should all be lay-ups for a man with the PR savvy of Kiffin.
If Kiffin cannot handle many of the same questions James Franklin answered earlier this season after he was fired at Penn State, then he really ought to take a look in the mirror. Who's really in the wrong here? It sure isn't the players he left behind.
Kiffin will create a legacy at LSU, one way or another. His reputation in Oxford is forever tarnished because of how he handled himself on the way out. This, as always, is a theme with Kiffin's exits. As much as Kiffin and his entourage claim he's grown up since being left on the tarmac in 2013, the evidence points to the contrary.