LSU’s new head coach has every good reason to cheer for his rival to win the College Football Playoff national championship.
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On Sunday, head coach Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss to become the new leader of the Tigers. The No. 7 Rebels are set to make the CFP after finishing the regular season with an 11-1 record.
Kiffin’s new deal with LSU will pay him $91 million over seven seasons ($13 million per year) with bonuses.
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Per Wilson Alexander of The Advocate, the Tigers have agreed to pay Kiffin’s postseason bonuses that he could have received at Ole Miss for this season. He’d make $150,000 for the Rebels playing the first round and could make $1,000,000 if a national championship comes to Oxford in January.
However, it appears Kiffin made it harder for himself to earn the bonus from Ole Miss.
Reports surfaced on Sunday that Kiffin tried to poach Ole Miss players and staff before leaving for LSU, telling coaches that they needed to get on the plane to Baton Rouge that afternoon if they wanted a job with the Tigers in 2026.
In an interview with Marty Smith of ESPN, Kiffin said he “would never” put his coaches in that position.
“Someone pumped a narrative in that there was an ultimatum to coaches or something,” Kiffin said. “There was nothing. Every coach has their own decision to make, and I would never give them an ultimatum like that. Those are all their own individual decisions.”
Regardless of whether there was an ultimatum given or not, several coaches got on that plane, choosing not to wait until after the CFP run to decide to join Kiffin’s staff at LSU.
Per Chris Hummer of Nola 247 Sports and Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, co-offensive coordinator Joe Cox, linebackers coach Chris Kiffin, inside wide receivers coach Sawyer Jordan, wide receivers coach George McDonald, general manager Billy Glasscock and head strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage are set to join Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. at LSU.
Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Ole Miss staff has until Monday night to decide on joining Kiffin at LSU or the program will start hiring the remaining staff from the outside.
Those staffing decisions will hurt Ole Miss’ chances of winning the CFP and Kiffin’s opportunity to earn the $1 million bonus. But more is at stake than Kiffin’s pocketbook.
The result of the decision between Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter and Kiffin feels unfair to the Rebels players trying to win a championship. They sacrificed their bodies in pursuit of winning the CFP, only to find those efforts easily discardable in a tense political situation two days after the regular season ended.
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