Lane Kiffin announced Sunday he is leaving his one-loss Mississippi team to become the coach at Louisiana State, taking over a Tigers program that has won national titles under three of its previous four coaches.
The move, disclosed by Kiffin on social media, comes two days after No. 6 Mississippi’s 39-19 victory over Mississippi State in the rivals’ annual Egg Bowl game that all but guaranteed the Rebels a playoff berth.
“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,” Kiffin wrote, adding that he would maintained “guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern.”
Kiffins said Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter denied his request “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,” he added.
After an Ole Miss team meeting Sunday afternoon, players including defensive back TJ Banks told reporters waiting outside that defensive coordinator Pete Golding was now the head coach. Mississippi athletics officials did not immediately confirm the move, but said an announcement was planned later Sunday.
Two prominent Ole Miss alumni with close ties to the athletic department, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made, said they’d been informed of Golding’s promotion.
The timing has been awkward for Ole Miss, Kiffin and college football in general. Kiffin made his announcement exactly one week before the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket is announced; the Rebels are all but certain to be included after a 11-1 regular season.
Kiffin, considered one of the top offensive coaches in college football, and Carter had agreed a week earlier that a decision had to be made by this weekend. Carter could not afford to wait until after critical recruiting periods in December and transfer periods in January had passed before starting his coaching search.
The CFP begins on Dec. 19, the semifinals don’t occur until Jan. 8-9 and the final is Jan. 19. Negotiations over the terms of Kiffin’s departure dragged on throughout Saturday and into Sunday.
Golding takes over the first Ole Miss team to win 11 regular-season games. A former Ole Miss player himself, Golding is in his third season on the Rebels’ staff after serving five years as a top defensive assistant at Alabama under former Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban.
Kiffin, meanwhile, was bound for neighboring Louisiana to take over one of Rebels’ oldest rivals.
It was Kiffin’s success at Ole Miss — where he went 55-19 in six seasons — that made him a target of several major programs seeking new coaches. Kiffin also was pursued by Florida, which fired coach Billy Napier a week before LSU cut ties with Brian Kelly.
While LSU offered Kiffin a raise over his current $9-million annual salary, the decision presumably was about more than money.
LSU has a championship brand in multiple sports; state-of-the-art facilities; a rabid, regional fan following; and a legendary, historic home football venue in Tiger Stadium (nicknamed Death Valley), which towers over the banks of the Mississippi River and holds 102,000 spectators — 38,000 more than Mississippi’s Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
The lone football coach of LSU’s past four who did not win a national championship was Kelly. He was fired in late October during his fourth season — a seismic development that also led then-athletic director Scott Woodward to resign under pressure from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
New athletic director Verge Ausberry — a Louisiana native, former Tigers football player and longtime LSU administrator — led a search for a new coach that focused primarily on Kiffin. LSU reportedly offered Kiffin $90 million in salary during seven years and pledged to ensure the football program has ample financial backing to pay players.
At Ole Miss, Kiffin split four meetings with Kelly’s Tigers — the home team winning each.
Perhaps more importantly, Kiffin has overseen one of the most successful stints in Ole Miss football history, arguably exceeded by only Johnny Vaught, whose 25 seasons at Ole Miss included a six-year period from 1957 through 1962 during which his teams went a combined 57-6.
Kelly, who was in the midst of a 10-year contract worth about $100 Million at LSU, went 34-14 with the Tigers.
LSU is 247-84 with three national championships since the 2000 season, which was Nick Saban’s first with the Tigers. Saban won his national title at LSU in the 2003 season and went 48-16 in five years before leaving to coach in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. Les Miles, hired in 2005, went 114-34 with a national title in 2007. Ed Orgeron, who succeeded Miles during the 2016 season, went 51-20, highlighted by his 15-0, national-title winning campaign in 2019.
Kiffin, son of the late, long-time NFL and college defensive coach Monte Kiffin, played quarterback in college at Fresno State. He got his first head-coaching job at any level in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders in 2007, but was fired just four games into his second season.
His took first college head-coaching job at Tennessee in 2009 and left after one season to take over at Southern California, where he was fired five games into his fourth season. He returned to coaching in 2017 with Florida Atlantic, spending three seasons there before Ole Miss lured him to Oxford in 2020.
Kiffin has said he adopted the mantra of striving to “do things better than they’ve ever been done before,” from one of his mentors, Pete Carroll, under whom Kiffin served as an assistant at USC from 2001 to 2006.
No coach has ever won multiple national championships at LSU. Kiffin will be the next to try.
Florida hires Tulane’s Jon Sumrall
Florida hired Tulane’s Jon Sumrall as its next coach Sunday, settling for its second choice after Lane Kiffin picked LSU over the Gators.
Sumrall finalized a six-year, $44.7-million contract that comes with incentives, according to a person familiar with the search. The person spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because financial details were not released. The deal averages $7.45 million annually.
The 43-year-old Sumrall will remain with the 22nd-ranked Green Wave for next week’s American Conference title game and through the College Football Playoff if Tulane makes the 12-team field.
The Gators also are on the verge of signing general manager Dave Caldwell, who won a Super Bowl during his five seasons with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. He also spent eight years (2013 to 2020) with the Jacksonville Jaguars and built a roster that made the AFC title game.
Caldwell is expected to help manage Florida’s salary cap and evaluate college talent as demands on coaches have expanded with the burgeoning transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments.
Sumrall played linebacker at Kentucky (2002 to 2004) and returned to his alma mater for a three-year stint before becoming Troy’s head coach in 2022. He won consecutive Sun Belt championships in two seasons with the Trojans and then enjoyed similar success at Tulane.
Arkansas hires Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield
Arkansas hired Ryan Silverfield away from Memphis as the Razorbacks’ new coach Sunday after a miserable 2-10 season filled with near misses.
Silverfield is 50-25 in six seasons at Memphis, and he was at his best going 10-3 in 2023 and 11-2 in 2024. The Tigers were ranked as high as No. 22 this season before finishing 8-4. He also went 4-0 in bowl games, not counting the Cotton Bowl in December 2019 that Silverfield coached after Mike Norvell left for Florida State. He will be the 35th head coach in Arkansas history.
“Coach Silverfield’s proven ability to win games over a sustained period separated him from the pack and make him the right choice to be our next head football coach,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement.
Auburn hires USF’s Alex Golesh
Auburn hired South Florida’s Alex Golesh as its next coach on Sunday, counting on him to revitalize an offense that has ranked in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference each of the last six years.
The 41-year-old Golesh, who was born in Russia and moved to the United State at age 7, is signing a six-year contract that averages more than $7 million annually to replace Hugh Freeze. Freeze was fired in early November after failing to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three seasons on the Plains. Freeze lost 12 of his last 15 SEC games.
Golesh went 23-15 in three seasons with the Bulls, a tenure that culminated with USF ranking second in the country in total offense (501.7 yards a game) and fourth in scoring (43 points a game).
“He has produced wins and record-setting results throughout his entire career, including over the last three seasons at USF,” Auburn athletic director John Cohen said. “Alex is known nationally for his player development prowess, ability to shape creative and explosive offenses, and his relentless approach to building winning programs.
Michigan State fires Jonathan Smith
Michigan State has fired football coach Jonathan Smith less than two years after he was hired.
The move was made Sunday by athletic director J Batt, who has been on campus since June, according to a person familiar with the situation speaking only on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced.
The Spartans lost eight of their last nine games to finish 4-8. Smith’s overall record at MSU was 9-15 and just 4-14 in the Big Ten. Smith is due more than $30 million, according to terms of his seven-year contract, and the school will have to spend many millions to find a replacement. The Spartans aren’t the only ones looking for a winning coach, either.
Smith was 34-35 over six seasons at Oregon State, winning at least eight games in consecutive seasons for the first time in more than a decade at his alma mater. He went 5-7 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten during his debut season last year. His seat got warm when athletic director Alan Haller, who hired him, left the school last May.
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