Lane Kiffin became the permanent villain in Oxford when he packed up his bags for a bigger check in Baton Rouge, leaving Ole Miss in the middle of their first-ever Playoff run.
However, Ole Miss fans are buzzing with excitement to extend some classic Southern hospitality to their former head coach this September. They’re counting down the days to the September showdown since they’ve been waiting for a year to let him know how they feel about his moving company.
And they fully intend to make his chaotic exit from Tennessee and the barrage of drama that unfolded with all the golf balls and mustard bottles hurled at him back in 2021 look like a civil affair.
Or, as Paul Finebaum points out, make it look like ‘Kindergarten stuff.’
“One day, I will solve the riddle of which fan base hates Lane Kiffin more – Tennessee for 2009 or this? When Kiffin went back to Tennessee a couple of years ago, they threw golf balls and mustard at him. That will be Kindergarten stuff compared to this,” Finebaum said Wednesday per On3.
Ole Miss vs. LSU Sweepstakes
GettyPete Golding gives LSU head coach Lane Kiffin a reality check ahead of Ole Miss vs. LSU.
For decades, the tension between Ole Miss and LSU came to a head on game day and simmered down by Sunday morning. This year, the rivalry has officially spilled out of the stadium and into the streets. Thanks to a wild offseason of programmatic betrayal, Ole Miss vs. LSU has evolved into something much meaner: a full-blown grudge match.
Kiffin believes it’s nothing he can’t handle, even when the Rebels fans overwhelmingly flipped off when boarding his flight to Baton Rouge from Oxford. In his viral interview with Vanity Fair, Kiffin even explained how money changes everything, throwing a veiled dig at the Vaught-Hemingway and its crowd.
“Once you make those expectations, they forget the stadium was half empty when we got there,” he said to Vanity Fair. “Once you involve money, everything changes.”
Kiffin went from making roughly $9 million a year at Ole Miss to a staggering 7-year, $91 million contract at LSU. That is a $4 million per year bump, averaging out to $13 million annually, making him the second-highest-paid coach in all of college football behind only Kirby Smart.
And that’s not even mentioning the bonuses he got from Ole Miss winning their Playoff games. That’s why, for the Rebels fans, he didn’t just leave—he chased the bag straight to a bitter SEC West rival. And that bitterness will account for more than what Neyland Stadium had in store for him in 2021.
Pete Golding Voices Rebels Fanbases’ Frustration
GettyPete Golding gives LSU head coach Lane Kiffin a reality check ahead of Ole Miss vs. LSU.
Pete Golding had the perfect response tailored for this. The Ole Miss head coach clearly warned his predecessor not to underestimate the immensely riled-up crowd that is ready to explode during the Week 3 matchup.
“Going to be a madhouse, an absolute madhouse, and this whole place is ready … been ready,” Golding recently told On3’s Chris Low.
Kiffin left Tennessee for a better-paying role after just one year. He not only left Ole Miss after six seasons there, but he also left them when they needed him the most — during the Playoffs and burned every bridge on his way out. Expecting a quiet trip to Oxford would be wishful thinking at best.
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