There was no shortage of drama with Lane Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss to become the new head coach at LSU. But perhaps the biggest sticking point was about Kiffin’s desire to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoffs despite his intentions to leave for Baton Rouge.
Kiffin claimed that disagreements on whether Kiffin could coach in the playoffs was part of the reason that his decision was delayed until late Saturday night. He also claimed that his players asked that he would coach them through the remainder of the season.
“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,” Kiffin said in a post on X. “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.”
Ole Miss offensive lineman Brycen Sanders took to X (Twitter) on Tuesday night to refute the claim that Rebels’ players wanted Kiffin to keep coaching them in the playoffs.
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“‘Despite the team asking me to keep coaching’. I think everyone that was in that room would disagree,” Sanders posted.
In an interview with SportsTalk Mississippi on Wednesday, Ole Miss Director of Athletics Keith Carter outright denied the claim that Kiffin was unaware that the Rebels would not let him coach in the playoffs if he left for another job. Carter did not outright say Kiffin lied about players wanting him to coach in the playoffs, but did state that it was a mischaracterization of what happened.
“I don’t think the way he portrayed that meeting was accurate,” Carter said. “There was a lot of pushback to him leaving . These guys knew they needed coaches to coach them in the game, and it sounded like he was going to take all the offensive staff with him if he didn’t coach in the game.”
Kiffin left Ole Miss after six strong seasons. The Rebels went 55-19 during his tenure in Oxford including 10-win seasons in 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Ole Miss 11-win regular season this year is the best in program history. Ole Miss ranks sixth nationally in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
Ole Miss hired defensive coordinator Pete Goulding as not just its interim head coach but its full-time head coach quickly following Kiffin’s departure. Goulding spent the previous three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Rebels. Prior to that, Goulding was the defensive coordinator at Alabama.
