Lane Kiffin: Don’t Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out

I’m taking this whole Lane Kiffin situation surprisingly personally. 

Growing up in New York City, I’d never been much of a college football fan. In college I covered our Division III football team for the campus newspaper, but I spent more time with the cross-country squad. 

I married into a Notre Dame family, moved to Chicago and started going to South Bend for games. And now my daughter is in her second year at Ole Miss, and I’ve gotten a taste of what the SEC is like.

This football season has been like no other for this long-suffering Jets fan. After a slow start, the Irish are crushing it. Ole Miss is 11-1. And the Bears are in first place.

Weekend after weekend three teams I’m rooting for are winning. I’m just not used to that.

So when word surfaced that Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was considering leaving Oxford, I wasn’t pleased. It affects how much I’ve been enjoying my weekends.

Most college football coaches are vagabonds. They drag their families from town to town, taking jobs coaching teams at whatever level they can in places you’ve probably never heard of. If they’re lucky they become a coordinator and eventually a head coach at a decent sized school.

Let’s face it. The head coach of a school with a decent football program has a pretty good deal. They’re one of the most important guys in town. Their authority on campus is rarely questioned–so long as they maintain a winning record. And the money’s not bad.

And if you get to a certain level in a power conference, you’re the king of all you survey.

Kiffin lived that life, making numerous stops before landing at Ole Miss. He was a huge success, building a program that won double-digit games, climaxing with the team’s first ever 11-victory season and an almost certain berth in the college football playoffs. Ole Miss was looking forward to a home playoff game in Oxford.

But a cloud cast a shadow as the season neared its end. Word was Kiffin was considering leaving after declaring he’d found heaven in Mississippi.

Greener pastures beckoned in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

Speaking of greener, it's worth remembering that LSU poached Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. How’d that go? He got fired after putting together a 31-14 record, but no appearances in the playoffs. But don’t cry for Kelly. LSU will have to pay him the remaining $54 million on his contract.

Kiffin is going from being the most popular man in Mississippi to a guy on the hot seat in Louisiana. Among those overseeing his performance is Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, who pulled responsibility for hiring a new LSU coach from the school’s athletic director. In Louisiana, Landry has reinstated the death penalty, but not for football coaches. Yet.

I think it’s fair to call Kiffin selfish. He put his own ambition ahead of the welfare of his players–who matter–and Ole Miss fans–who matter less. Kiffin said he prayed about his decision, but I doubt the divine answer was to screw the people who’ve been counting on you and take the money.

I’m rooting for the Ole Miss players to rally around their new coach, Pete Golding, who had been the team’s defensive coordinator. Winning the national championship is a very long shot, but stranger things have happened.

Maybe you’ve seen the videos of fans booing Kiffin as he boarded a plane to leave Oxford for Baton Rouge. If there’s bad karma for Kiffin, he has no one to blame but himself. He’ll be the poster boy for everything that’s wrong with college football: big money, no loyalty. 

Of course, if he’s a big success at LSU, winning makes everything right.

THE BEARS ARE NO. 1

I’ve been in Chicago for more than 20 years and I’ve never enjoyed a Bears game more than I did on Black Friday. 

The Bears whipped the Super Bowl champion Eagle in Philadelphia, but it’s the way they did it that was so satisfying. After a series of wins that could be categorized as lucky over poor teams with worse quarterbacks, the Bears beat a good team that needed a win.

But the best part was that the coach seemed to be listening to me as I shouted suggestions at the TV from my couch.  “Run the ball,” I said, and run the ball they did, right down the throats of the Eagle defense. Kyle Monangai had 22 carries for 130 yards and D’Andre Swift ran 18 times for 125 yards. It was the first time the Bears had two 100-yard rushers since . . . 1985, a pretty good Bears year.

Even better: on one crucial third down in the fourth quarter, it seemed to me that the quarterback bootleg was open. I made that suggestion to the TV and Caleb Williams rolled to his left to pick up the first down. That’s better than playing Madden. Booya. 

After the game, Bears coach Ben Johnson celebrated in the locker room by taking off his shirt, a move that triggered free hot dogs at Chicago’s notorious Wiener’s Circle. (Why is it notorious? Watch this.) 

This football season, life is good. All I can say is bring on the Packers.