BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lane Kiffin called his past six years at Ole Miss “the best six years” of his life, and then tried to explain why he felt compelled to leave Oxford, Mississippi, behind and take over an LSU football program that he’s always admired from afar.
“Having watched this place for a long time, having been on the other sideline in this stadium, this place is different, and that’s why we’re here,” Kiffin said. “LSU is the best job in football. When you take the history, tradition, passion and the great players in the state of Louisiana … when you’re in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, there is nothing like it.”
Kiffin was flown in on a private plane on Sunday night with LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry.
Monday afternoon, he was standing on a podium before a festive crowd of LSU dignitaries in a premium club lounge with a panoramic view of Tiger Stadium, where massive video boards were lit up with his name and likeness.
“I felt like everybody that I talked to outside of the state that I was in (Mississippi) all basically said the same thing,” Kiffin said, acknowledging that he also had received a “unique, great call” from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry during LSU’s courtship.
“They all said, ‘Man, you are going to regret it if you don’t take a shot and you don’t go to LSU. It’s the best job in America with the best resources,’” Kiffin said.
Ausberry said Kiffin’s name was the first on everyone’s lips when LSU’s search committed first met to discuss candidates.
Kiffin, meanwhile, said he liked the fact that Ausberry told him: “I’m going to leave you alone and let you coach the team.”
Kiffin now has a seven-year contract paying him about $13 million annually, making him, for the time being, the second-highest-paid coach in college football. Kiffin said he received similar offers from Ole Miss and Florida, but that LSU’s plan for raising money for paying players impressed him the most.
Just three days earlier, Kiffin was walking off a football field with triumphant Ole Miss players after an Egg Bowl victory at Mississippi State that secured the first 11-win regular season in Rebels history. Kiffin wanted to continue coaching the Rebels in the College Football Playoff, and made his case to do so during more than a day of protracted negotiations with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter over the weekend.
Kiffin said that while he felt most people across the country agreed that he should be able to coach in the postseason, he also respected Carter’s stance, because Carter would still have to live in Oxford when the season was done. Even after Kiffin had moved on to the Rebels’ historical rivals in neighboring Louisiana.
Kiffin said he was torn, and that making his decision to leave Ole Miss was excruciating and extremely difficult. He said he felt grateful to the people of Oxford, as well as his Rebels players and assistant coaches, for both his coaching success and quality of life he enjoyed while he was there.
“It was amazing,” Kiffin said. “It will forever be a major part of my story.”
Kiffin also recounted his unsettling drive to the Oxford airport with his son, Knox, on Sunday night.
“People trying to run us off the road, man, and the things they said to us,” Kiffin said. “But that’s the SEC. I’ve been around it long enough to know that, and it’s just the passion of the SEC. I’m not upset at those reactions by fans, by people. I think that people get really upset when you leave somewhere because they feel hurt because you’re doing a really good job.”
Kiffin said his past 48 hours had been very challenging, and “in a lot of ways sucked. It’s the only way I can describe it. It sucked for a lot of people.”
He also couldn’t help but think, when he was greeted by jubilant fans outside the airport in Baton Rouge, that he hadn’t “done anything yet.”
Kiffin, 50, is starting his sixth head coaching job. He’s been fired from a couple. He was criticized — and also said he regretted — not spending more than one year at Tennessee before seizing a chance to coach Southern California.
But he appreciated the enthusiasm for his arrival, and when he rode past Tiger Stadium, all lit up on Sunday night, he called his old friend and former LSU coach Ed Orgeron.
He recounted with a grin that he told Orgeron, “This place just makes me want to talk like you right now.”
And then Kiffin mimicked himself a night earlier, summoning a low, raspy voice and a Cajun accent, like Orgeron, as he shouted: “Go Tigers!”
Kiffin said Orgeron told him, “Coach, you’re at the best place in America.”
And Kiffin responded, “I feel that.”
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