Lane Kiffin has confirmed that he is leaving Ole Miss football and has accepted the head coaching job at LSU. He said so in a statement on his X account, following numerous reports that the decision had been made.
In his statement, he confirmed that he was hoping to coach Ole Miss in the College Football Playoffs this year. However, Rebels AD Keith Carter denied his request. He also noted that players were hoping Kiffin would be granted the chance to coach.
Here is the full statement:
“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin said in a post on X.
“I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year’s team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team’s incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everything into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern. My request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance. Unfortunately, that means Friday’s Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels.
“While I am looking forward to a new start with a unique opportunity at LSU, I will forever cherish the incredible six years I spent at Ole Miss and will be rooting hard for the team to complete their mission and bring a championship to Oxford.”
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) November 30, 2025
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Kiffin has become an increasingly popular name in coaching searches, given his turnaround of Ole Miss. He’s stayed in Oxford despite opportunities elsewhere, though, but there was never been more buzz surrounding his name than this year. Ultimately, it ended up in him all but officially heading to LSU.
In his sixth year with the Rebels, he owned a 54-19 record atop the program. However, he was yet to make the playoffs despite years as good as 10-2 in 2023 in the four-team era and 9-3 a year ago in the expansion to 12. This year, his squad went 11-1 and is destined for the 12-team field.
Prior to his time at Ole Miss, he spent three years at FAU. This came after a hiatus from being a head coach when he was fired by USC after a 3-2 start in 2013. He took the Trojans’ job in 2010 after one season at Tennessee. His departure from the Vols after a 7-6 season caused chaos in Knoxville and helped send UT down a spiral it only recently recovered from.
