Lane Kiffin officially announced that he was accepting the head coaching position for LSU Football on Nov. 30 — and the Ole Miss community erupted.
Once the decision was official, students staked out at the University-Oxford Airport to boo and shout at Kiffin as he boarded the plane to Baton Rouge, La. After the Ole Miss Football team meeting during which Pete Golding was announced as the new head coach, players leaving the Manning Center were vocal in their support for him to an audience of around a hundred students.
Multiple fraternity houses hung banners bidding good riddance to Kiffin.
The Delta Tau Delta fraternity’s banner read “CAN’T MAKE A HOUSEWIFE OUT OF A HO,” referencing On3 reporter Ben Garrett’s comment about Kiffin last week. Below that, the fraternity painted, “GTHLK” (“Go To H–ll Lane Kiffin”).
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity’s banner anointed Golding with “GOLDING ERA.” It also included other phrases dismissing Kiffin’s departure and indicating confidence in the team, such as “SPOT THE BALL” and “CALL 6” (a reference to Trinidad Chambliss, who wears the jersey number six).
Beta Theta Pi’s banner also shouts approval for the new head coach; it reads, “PETE FLEET 2026.”
Bo Blossom, a senior marketing major, approved of the athletic department’s decision to appoint Golding as head coach. The former defensive coordinator, Blossom says, was understood to be more well-liked by the players, even if Kiffin had the better football mind.
“I think what Keith Carter did afterwards with hiring Pete Golding — I think that was perfect,” Blossom said. “I’m actually listening to a podcast right now with some insiders, and they were talking about how Lane Kiffin was not a ‘player’s coach.’ Never was, never has been. Pete Golding is the players’ coach; Lane Kiffin was the better play caller.”
Even under Kiffin, Golding reportedly played a major role in Ole Miss’ recruiting.
Blossom disagreed not only with Kiffin’s decision to leave but also the manner in which he conducted himself.
“I think the thing that made me frustrated (on the day he announced his departure) was how he handled it,” Blossom said. “It seemed that he didn’t care about the coaches, the players, all this different stuff. The way I see it, I agree with Keith Carter. You don’t want to let somebody (coach) who is not making any choices and (is) very uncertain about if he’s going to leave after the playoffs or not.”
Kanesha Freeman, a freshman exercise science major, was also displeased, particularly with how long Kiffin let the rumors fester.
“He had us waiting for so long. It was just off-guard,” Freeman said. “We really thought that he had a community here. We thought that he was really gonna stay, because his son and all his family (were here), and he built something here.”
The move is not uncharacteristic of Kiffin. In 2010, he departed from Tennessee after only one season in favor of the head coaching position at the University of Southern California.
As a Tennessee fan, senior integrated marketing communications major Mary Mac Parnell has witnessed what she finds to be a Kiffin betrayal before. She was not surprised by Kiffin’s move to LSU; moreover, she stands with former Alabama head coach Nick Saban in her belief that the NCAA needs to change its rules to prevent coaching departures from conflicting with the postseason.
“It’s part of coaching. You know, you’re gonna leave teams,” Parnell said. “I do think it’s a little sad that he left before the season’s over, but I do agree with Nick Saban and the fact that this is a rules issue and not necessarily a Kiffin issue, that the rules need to be changed so coaches and players don’t leave in the middle of the year.”
Many fans believed Kiffin had found a home in Oxford. In 2022, there was speculation that Kiffin would depart from the program for the Auburn coaching vacancy. But after the Egg Bowl that season, Kiffin was asked if he planned to return to Oxford in 2023, and he did not beat around the bush.
Kiffin’s daughter Landry is a junior general business major at UM, and his son Knox plays quarterback for the Oxford High School Football team. For Joshua Anderson, a junior biomedical engineering major, this was reason enough to believe that Kiffin was not going anywhere.
“I personally think it’s a publicity stunt, he’s not going anywhere, he just wants a little bit of media attention,” Anderson said prior to the announcement on Nov. 20. “His daughter goes to school here, his kid goes to Oxford High (School) and is in the midst of a state championship run, I don’t think he’s going to leave.”
Some students were not surprised; to them, Kiffin’s departure was a matter of when — not if.
“I thought he was a good coach for us, but I knew … this would happen at some point,” Bradford Perkins, a senior journalism major, said. “Yesterday, once I saw this was happening, I was kind of upset for a little bit, but then at the end of the day, I just realized it is what it is. Life will move on, and what’s good for him is all right with me.”
Freshman finance major John McQueen suspected Kiffin would leave as early as the Florida game — and is glad that Kiffin did not drag out the divorce any longer than he already did.
“I kind of knew he was leaving for a while now. Even after the Florida game, the Egg Bowl, you can kind of tell by his mannerisms he was gonna leave,” McQueen said. “So if he was really gonna leave us the entire time, glad (he) got it out of the way and glad it’s done.”
When looking ahead to an age of Ole Miss Football without Kiffin at its helm, McQueen offered a grim, yet honest, prediction.
“I think it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. But I think in the long run, we’re going to survive,” McQueen said.
Evan Huggins contributed reporting.
