Right now there’s no bigger heel in college football than LSU head coach Lane Kiffin. He’s jumped teams in the middle of playoff runs, he’s bent recruiting rules while accusing rivals of doing the same, and, most recently, fought for LSU to roster players who’d signed contracts with NFL teams. In response, the Southeastern Conference filed a federal lawsuit seeking to kick LSU out of the conference.
You know you’re pushing boundaries when the SEC is saying “Dude… that’s too much.”
So, how awful is Lane Kiffin? A point for the prosecution: During an opening day appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay, Kiffin commiserated with ESPN co-host of everything Pat McAfee, saying, “I’ve really appreciated our friendship…your guidance with me…because between you and I, we’re about the two most hated people there are.”
Being actual friends with Pat McAfee? And worse, taking advice from him? That’s pretty awful.
But can one person, even a big-time college football coach, actually be that bad? Kiffin must have some redeeming qualities, right? This week, Kiffin leads his team against his most recent former team when LSU visits Ole Miss on Saturday in a grudge match for the ages.
Which begs the question: Is Lane Kiffin Really As Awful As Everyone Says? Here’s an investigation.
Yes. He makes Tristan Thompson look like a paragon of faithfulness.
College football coaches are notorious bag and clout chasers, but even by those low standards, Kiffin gets around. Kiffin became the youngest head coach in NFL history in 2007 when he was hired by the Raiders at the age of 31. After being fired four games into his second season, Kiffin became the youngest active coach in college football when he took the head job at Tennessee. He stayed there exactly one season before jumping ship to take the head coaching job at Southern Cal.
After flaming out at USC, he resurrected his career as offensive coordinator at Alabama, before a three-year stint at Florida Atlantic and six-year run at Ole Miss. His departure from Ole Miss was his most infamous (so far): leaving a playoff-bound 11-1 team for a conference rival before the postseason and poaching a number of assistant coaches.
No. He’s also suffered some brutal firings.
If hurt people hurt people as the saying goes, then Kiffin has an excuse for his sloppy exits. After going 4-12 in his first season with Oakland, team owner Al Davis pressured him to resign. Davis eventually fired Kiffin just one month into his second year, saying Kiffin had “disgraced” the organization (that’s hard to do with the Raiders!) and that he was "embarrassed to watch” the team play. “I think he conned me like he conned all you people,” Davis added.
Despite some initial success during his head coaching stint at USC, Kiffin’s Trojans started his third season 3-2. After a blowout loss at Arizona State, the team arrived back to LA at 3 am in the morning. The SC athletic director pulled Kiffin off the team bus on the tarmac and fired him. The bus then proceeded back to campus with Kiffin’s bags, but not Kiffin, still aboard. Maybe his commitment issues aren’t all his fault.
Yes. He’s burned plenty of bridges himself.
Kiffin’s departure from Tennessee after one not-so-successful season was so acrimonious, UT students rioted, setting fires and defacing campus landmarks. Sample graffiti: “Die Lane.”
During his last season at Ole Miss, Kiffin was rumored to be in the running for a number of high-profile gigs. He finally took the LSU job after Ole Miss’s final regular season game of the year, but not before leaving the Rebels twisting in the wind for weeks. After he accepted the job, he proceeded to hire a number of his Ole Miss assistants, while also requesting to coach the team throughout its College Football Playoff run. The request was denied, and Ole Miss went on a mini-run in the Playoff, winning two games, including an upset of No. 3 seed Georgia, before eventually losing to Miami in the semifinals.
No. He’s a winner.
Kiffin made his mark as an assistant coach at USC during the Trojan’s legendary mid-’00s run. He started at SC in 2001, and was promoted to co-offensive coordinator (alongside now Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian) prior to the 2005 season. USC won national titles with Kiffin on the staff in 2003 and 2004. The ‘05 Trojans were one of the greatest offensive teams of all time, and the only team to have a 3,000 yard passer, two 1,000 yard rushers, and one 1,000 yard receiver. Kiffin was also the head recruiter for three years at SC, with the Trojans claiming the top recruiting class each season.
Kiffin won another national championship as Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2015, and won Conference USA titles at Florida Atlantic in 2017 and 2019. He reached 50 wins faster than any coach in Ole Miss history, and eventually compiled a 55-19 record with the Rebels.
Yes. But not always.
For a coach who often seems in demand, Kiffin’s also had some very bad stretches. His year-plus stint with the Raiders ended with a 5-15 record, and he went just 7-6 in his one-year run at Tennessee. Kiffin’s USC tenure started with promising 8-5 and 10-2 campaigns, prompting a No. 1 ranking going into the 2012 season. That team finished 7-6 and became the first team in nearly 50 years to finish unranked after beginning the season No. 1.
Yes. He’s kind of a creep.
After his Southern Cal crash and burn, Kiffin began to rehabilitate his coaching reputation at Alabama, where he spent three seasons as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator. Kiffin was a finalist for the nation’s top assistant coach award in 2014 and ‘Bama won a national title in 2015.
Unfortunately, while he rehabbed his professional reputation Kiffin was working to trash his rep in his private life. He was separated from his wife and three daughters at the time, and, according to journalist John Talty’s new biography Lane Being Lane, Kiffin would cruise local bars in Tuscaloosa asking “Can you introduce me to hotties?” Kiffin’s escapades got so bad that head coach Nick Saban allegedly issued instructions to “keep Lane away from the girls who are in college. Keep him away from the sorority girls.”
No. That era is behind him.
This past January, Kiffin posted to X celebrating five years of sobriety. He pinpointed the moment he needed to change as a photo of himself he’d seen where he looked bloated and out of shape. His message was heartfelt and focused on encouraging others to embrace change as well. He also posted about the dangers of alcohol. So yes, cruising for girls 20 years younger than you is creepy; making changes to that behavior is laudable.
Yes. What he did to Ole Miss was legitimately awful.
There have been some very messy college football coaching betrayals in the last few years (ironically, Kiffin’s predecessor at LSU, Brian Kelly, authored one of his own when he left Notre Dame for the Tigers), but Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss was especially ugly. After being tied to other jobs during the 2025 season, Kiffin signed with LSU a day after Ole Miss completed an 11-1 regular season.
Despite his lame duck status, Kiffin pushed to coach the team in the College Football Playoff. When that was denied, he threatened to poach assistant coaches and players while Ole Miss was still playing for their first National Championship! Kiffin claimed that some of his former players had asked that he continue coaching the team, only to have many players say otherwise.
And according to Lane Being Lane, Kiffin actively rooted against the Rebels during their playoff fun. Yuck.
Yes. Attempting to play former NFLers is too much.
The NIL era in college athletics has effectively made college players professionals, but allowing players to return to NCAA games after signing pro contracts is one thing coaches haven’t embraced—until Kiffin.
This summer Kiffin sought to bring Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris to LSU. Both played for Kiffin at Ole Miss, and spent time in NFL training camps prior to the season. They’re not the first players with pro sports experience to attempt to play in college—James Nnaji, the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, played basketball for Baylor last season and Charles Bediako played five games for Alabama last season after spending three seasons in the NBA G League. But Kiffin’s full-throated push to bring former pros to LSU received major backlash, including the SEC’s lawsuit threatening to kick the Tigers out of the conference. Ultimately Kiffin didn’t add Wright and Harris to his LSU roster. He did get off an all-time troll during the halftime interview of his first game with the Tigers however, when he quipped “Imagine if we had pro players” with LSU up 31-3 over Clemson.
No. Dave Portnoy hates him!
He may be friends with Pat McAfee, but he’s been the target of criticism from Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy. In a series of tweets after Kiffin left for LSU, Portnoy said the coach “has no moral character” and, in reference to Kiffin, “you can’t turn a hoe into a housewife.”
If that’s what Dave Portnoy thinks of you, how bad can you actually be?
The verdict?
Yes, but if he’s comfortable in his own skin, who can argue with it? He seems like a world class troll, and a competitor who has no qualms about bending rules to their breaking point in pursuit of wins. Just the kind of guy you like if he’s on your team, and hate if he’s leading your rival. Just ask LSU fans.
