This time, Lane Kiffin will be playing in the major leagues.
After a messy split — a Kiffin specialty throughout his career — with Ole Miss, he’s now the head coach at LSU. He’ll make more money and have a higher profile than ever before, but it comes with expectations unlike anything he has faced.
At LSU, Kiffin will have as much financial support as any coach in the nation. He’ll have the fertile recruiting grounds of Louisiana and the surrounding states. His name — combined with LSU’s brand — will allow him to recruit competitively on a national level.
Rising Expectations at LSU
Add all that up, and Kiffin will face enormous expectations in Baton Rouge. Simply making LSU competitive in the SEC won’t be enough. Winning SEC championships won’t be enough. Kiffin was brought to LSU for one purpose: to win national championships — yes, plural.
Sure, he might get a brief honeymoon period as he tries to rebuild a program that bottomed out this season. But that grace period will be short. LSU expects to win big immediately and contend for — and win — a national title within the next few years.
LSU is a blue-blood program with five national championships, the most recent coming in 2019. That may not seem long ago to most people. But at LSU, it’s an eternity.
LSU officials and fans view Kiffin as one of college football’s “super” coaches. Maybe he’ll become one. But the truth is he’s not there yet. Kiffin did a nice job at Ole Miss, putting the Rebels firmly in the College Football Playoff picture this season. He’s won a lot of games, but he’s never won a national championship.
At Florida Atlantic, Kiffin took a lowly program and made it respectable — nothing more, nothing less. At USC, he and the Trojans overperformed in his first two seasons while dealing with the Reggie Bush sanctions. But once the sanctions were lifted and expectations rose, Kiffin flopped and was fired early in his fourth season. That split, like many others in his career, was ugly.
His one season at Tennessee was turbulent. He caused a stir by publicly accusing Florida coach Urban Meyer of NCAA recruiting violations. His legacy in Knoxville is leaving the program in less than a year to take the USC job. Jumping jobs and burning bridges have been Kiffin trademarks.
A Career Marked by Turbulence
He lasted less than two seasons as coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, and his separation from owner Al Davis was acrimonious. Kiffin caught a break on that one because many blamed the feud on the eccentric Davis. But this time around, Kiffin is being painted as the villain for leaving Ole Miss abruptly. Fans fear he’ll bring most of his staff to LSU and lure current Ole Miss players and recruits to Baton Rouge.
But remorse has never been Kiffin’s style. His focus will now be on LSU and the enormous task ahead.
A case can be made that Kiffin has been overrated at times. Early in his career, he benefited from the reputation of his father, Monte Kiffin, one of the greatest defensive coordinators in NFL history. In later years, he has had success and continued climbing the coaching ladder.
Kiffin may have been labeled a “super coach” long before he truly became one. Now, he has the chance to prove he deserves the title. LSU is a destination job. The grass doesn’t get any greener.
The endings of Kiffin’s previous stops have often been messy or mixed. At LSU, the expected ending is crystal clear: he must win a national championship — and maybe more than one — to validate his career once and for all.
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