Lane Kiffin has taken the college football world by storm in recent days after making the controversial decision to leave Ole Miss—just ahead of their College Football Playoff run—to become the next head coach of the LSU Tigers.
He agreed to a seven-year, $91 million deal, with the potential to become the highest-paid coach in college football if he wins a national championship in Baton Rouge.
While opinions on his decision have been widespread, one of his former colleagues and current Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll reportedly offered Kiffin advice before he made his final choice.
According to ESPN’s Marty Smith, Kiffin shared that “Coach Carroll said, ‘Your dad would tell you to go, man. Take the shot… you accomplished a lot here.’”
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On Wednesday, Carroll was asked about Kiffin’s decision but quickly shut down the reporter’s question, saying, “You think I’d answer that? I ain’t answering that.”
He added, “With all respect to the question, I don’t have any opinion I’m going to let out about what he did. I just talked to him the way I knew him. I’ve known him just about his whole life, so that was just being there for him.”
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Kiffin coached under Carroll at USC for six seasons from 2001 to 2006, starting as a tight ends coach and eventually being promoted to offensive coordinator. During that time, they won two national championships together.
Since then, Kiffin has steadily climbed the coaching ranks. He has held positions under Nick Saban at Alabama, spent time in the NFL, led Florida Atlantic, and most recently served as head coach at Ole Miss for the past six seasons, where he just capped off arguably the best season in program history.
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