Intense focus is being paid to what Ole Miss will do after the inevitable departure of Lane Kiffin. But not enough attention is being paid to how the controversial head coach will do with his new school. Despite all the money the Tigers are set to throw at him to lure him to Baton Rouge, Kiffin will need to reverse SEC history if he wants to be a success at LSU.
The last coach to make a move from one SEC school to another was Dan Mullen, who made the jump from Mississippi State to Florida back in 2018. He started off hot in Gainesville, but was unceremoniously dumped after a 5-6 campaign in 2021 that only featured two wins inside the conference.
Tommy Tuberville was the most recent Ole Miss head man to pull off an intra-SEC move. He took his talents to Auburn all the way back in 1998. He did experience a spell of exceptional success on The Plains but, like most coaches, he left the school after a significant downturn. His 5-7 record back in 2008 led him to leave Auburn for a new opportunity at Texas Tech.
Will Lane Kiffin win big at LSU?
The question looming over Kiffin's prospects at LSU has to begin with the quality of job he's poised to take. LSU should still be considered one of the top 10 jobs in all of college football. It's the dominant program in the state of Louisiana, which provides it a fertile recruiting base to work from on an annual basis. The brand of the school also allows its head coach to recruit on a national basis whenever required.
Ole Miss isn't a program devoid of resources, but LSU is in a stronger financial position. They will almost certainly be poised to spend more on their roster than the Rebels in this new era of player compensation. It's hard to envision a scenario where any school in the country significantly outspends Kiffin in Baton Rouge, which was likely a big negotiating point when he was making the decision to take the job.
The biggest concern Kiffin should have is whether or not he can handle the peculiar culture that surrounds LSU football. Brian Kelly was an atrocious fit in Louisiana, but whenever the goverment starts spouting off about the head football coach it's a sign of dysfunction. Kiffin has a better chance of succeeding politically than Kelly — it would be hard for anyone to be less suited to that task than Kelly was — but it's a risk that must be acknowledged.
Kiffin will also be under more pressure to win immediately than other coaches who have made high-profile moves. The transfer portal gives him an opportunity to reshape the roster in a single offseason. That should permit Kiffin to upgrade the talent at LSU, but melding those high-profile acquisitions into a cohesive unit will be one of his biggest challenges.
In the end, Kiffin has every chance to succeed where other SEC coaches have failed. It's not a certainty that he'll clothe himself in glory at LSU though. The pitfalls that fell previous conference coaches could trip him up too.