Lane Kiffin leaves Ole Miss on brink of its first College Football Playoff to take LSU job

College football’s strangest saga of the season is finally over.

Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin will take the same job with the LSU Tigers, he announced Sunday, leaving the seventh-ranked team in the nation for its conference rival.

“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 in a social media post.

The Tigers job became available after the school fired Brian Kelly in October. Kiffin immediately became the most heavily rumored name to take over, despite the Rebels being in the midst of a playoff run.

Ole Miss reportedly gave Kiffin an ultimatum to make his decision by this weekend, though the coach denied the report. One reason for the delay in Kiffin’s decision was his desire to coach the Rebels through the end of the season.

“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,” Kiffin said in his statement. “My request to do so was denied by 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.”

Kiffin, 50, has been no stranger to controversy during his coaching career.

In 2008, he was fired after a little over one season with the NFL’s then-Oakland Raiders, with then-team owner Al Davis calling Kiffin a “flat-out liar.”

In 2010, after only one season as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, Kiffin left the program to take the head job with the USC Trojans.

In 2013, less than four seasons into his tenure with the Trojans, Kiffin was fired on the tarmac of Los Angeles International Airport after posting a 28-15 record in 43 games.

Kiffin found sustained success with Ole Miss, however. Through this season, he led the team to a 55-19 record, including a top-10 finish in 2023 and three bowl wins.

Pete Golding, the defensive coordinator under Kiffin, will be the team’s new full-time head coach, the school announced. Golding has coached at Ole Miss since 2023.