To understand Lane Kiffin's rise with Ole Miss football, consider how he evolved | Toppmeyer
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- Lane Kiffin sees a bit of himself in one of Taylor Swift's latest songs. But, forget about broken toys. Kiffin and Ole Miss football are alchemy.
- By staying at Ole Miss for five seasons, Lane Kiffin surprised even himself.
- Lane Kiffin says he now embraces 'radical acceptance' and a mindset that you never can truly know yourself until you've been torn apart and reassembled.
Taylor Swiftâs music wields the power to lay bare a listenerâs soul. To true Swifties, Taylor isnât just singing. Her lyrics resonate.
Even Ole Missâ 49-year-old football coach sees a bit of himself in those lyrics.
Consider Lane Kiffin a Swiftie. He appreciates her music, and although he didnât embrace Swiftâs latest album, âThe Tortured Poets Department,â with as much vigor as her past work, one song hit home.
âMy favorite song would be, âMy Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,ââ Kiffin told me recently. He said he sees parallels between his life and the âboyâ in Swiftâs song.
In âMy Boy,â Swift sings: âMy boy only breaks his favorite toys. I'm queen of sandcastles he destroys.â
As Swiftâs song continues, the music icon hits these punchy notes: âThere was danger in the heat of my touch. He saw forever so he smashed it up.â
Snicker, if you like, while you consider Kiffin hearing himself within these lyrics. Heâll permit you that laugh, but he wonât deny reality.
âIt might be similar to my lifeâs path,â Kiffin said during our wide-ranging interview.
EXCLUSIVE Q&A:What Lane Kiffin thinks of Taylor Swift album, Nick Saban retirement, Ole Miss hopes
Kiffin once was the boy wonder, the mercurial coach of the Oakland Raiders and later the Tennessee Vols, with the beautiful wife and a young family. The seams of that life came apart. He sped out of Knoxville while it flamed in his rear-view mirror. Southern Cal fired him from his dream job â on a tarmac, no less â in a professional lowlight. His marriage ended in divorce.
While Swiftâs song lasts just more than three minutes, Kiffinâs tale didnât end smashed in L.A. He rebuilt. Heâs winning like never before.
Kiffin, entering Year 5 at Ole Miss, armed himself with what he considers the best roster heâs ever had. Ole Miss dines on success like it hasnât tasted since the early 1960s.
These are new waters for Kiffin. He's never stayed at a head coaching job for this long.
Kiffin says he adopted a mentality of âradical acceptanceâ and an evolved perspective built on the idea that you never can truly know yourself until youâve been torn apart and forced to put yourself back together.
âMost of my rock bottoms were my own fault, my own self-destruction,â Kiffin says, âbut I now see that having to rebuild that in my personal life and in my career ⊠in that process, I really got to actually figure myself out and learn myself, because I had to build it.â
Enough broken toys. Check out this puzzle Kiffin assembled at Ole Miss.
How Lane Kiffin used âfree agencyâ to upgrade Ole Miss
Kiffin discusses roster assembly almost as if heâs an NFL general manager. That reflects the truth of college football in 2024. Call it what it is: Teams use NIL deals, peddled via collectives, to attract and retain players. All thatâs missing are the NFLâs employment contracts and salary caps.
Kiffin and Ole Miss are quite good at attracting talented transfers, and he infrequently loses his top players to the portal. Star running back Quinshon Judkins became a rare exception when he transferred to Ohio State after last season. Losing Judkins stings. But, his exit off the NIL bankroll freed cap space â to use an NFL term â to fortify other areas.
See how that NFL GM mindset applies?
Kiffin became an early adopter of using analytics to guide in-game strategy. He applies similar logic to roster building.
Would he rather have Player A for X number of dollars, or would Ole Miss be better served using $X to amass several good players who address needs?
âIn the NFL, youâve got to make decisions about how much to pay a player versus the other amount of players that you can get for that same price at other positions,â Kiffin explained. âIâm making that as a general statement about what they do in the NFL and would just say that in college football, you have to make those type of decisions now.â
In the four seasons since Ole Miss hired Kiffin, Alabama and Georgia are the only SEC teams to have compiled a better winning percentage than Kiffinâs Rebels.
Still, Kiffin knew his program required adjustment after last seasonâs 52-17 loss at Georgia. The Bulldogs manhandled Ole Miss. The Rebels needed to upgrade their offensive and defensive lines.
Hello, transfer portal.
Kiffin assembled the nationâs No. 1-ranked transfer class. Four offensive linemen and three defensive linemen are among that haul. If the Rebels become contenders for the SEC crown, itâll be because of upgrades on the lines of scrimmage.
âThe hope was, especially after the Georgia game, we need to build our offensive line better â (get) longer,â Kiffin said. âAnd we need to get bigger in the front seven. So, we went out aggressively in free agency, if I can just say what it is. We went out in free agency to attack that.â
Six Rebels transfers came from SEC schools. That includes four defensive additions from within the SEC, highlighted by defensive linemen Walter Nolen (via Texas A&M) and Princely Umanmielen (via Florida). The talent influx gives Ole Miss an opportunity for its best defense in Kiffinâs tenure.
Plus, several Rebels who couldâve gone to the NFL Draft returned for another season.
âThey wanted to do something special,â Kiffin says of the veteransâ return.
What does âsomething specialâ look like?
Playoff qualification? A trip to Atlanta? National championship contention?
Kiffin wonât define concrete goals. Heâs one of those âprocessâ guys.
But, even Kiffin admits: âThereâs a ton of experience.â
With experience and talent come lofty expectations â and the threat of a ârat poisonâ overdose.
Why Nick Saban told Lane Kiffin to give Ole Miss a warning
Nick Saban called Kiffin last week. Saban will be an ESPN analyst on âCollege GameDay,â and he rang Kiffin to polish his Ole Miss knowledge. Consider it preseason homework for the GOATâs new gig.
âHeâs attacking his new job,â Kiffin said.
While Kiffin had Sabanâs ear, he asked his former boss for advice on how to deal with the unprecedented expectations Ole Miss faces.
Keep fresh in playersâ minds the idea of ârat poison,â Saban advised. Thatâs the phrase Saban coined for when media heap praise upon a team.
âHe said, âRemind those players about rat poison,ââ Kiffin said, as he recalled Sabanâs advice. ââRemind them that those people that are writing that stuff on the internet about how great they are, ... it's probably some big fat guy in his underwear who doesn't know (crap) about football.ââ
Kiffin holds Saban in the highest esteem. He feels gratitude that Saban hired him to be Alabamaâs offensive coordinator after USC had sacked him in 2013. The benefits were mutual. Kiffin galvanized Alabamaâs offense, and his three-year stint with Saban reignited his career.
Immediately after Saban retired in January, some Alabama fans positioned Kiffin atop their wish list as the ideal successor. Alabama focused its search elsewhere. It hired Kalen DeBoer, who had just taken Washington to the national championship game.
Did Kiffin want to replace Saban? He didnât directly answer that question. Instead, Kiffin referenced advice his dad, former coach Monte Kiffin, offered him years ago.
Kiffinâs told me this story before. The elder Kiffinâs advice to his son went like this: âAlways look at who you follow as a head coach. Itâs a major, major part to your success, because youâll always be compared to the coach before.â
Kiffin admits he âcertainly didnât listenâ to Monteâs advice in his younger days, when he succeeded Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee and Pete Carroll at USC. Both were legends.
In Kiffinâs eyes, Saban will be the toughest act to follow, âbecause youâre always going to be comparedâ to the incomparable.
Following Bryan Harsin wouldâve been a different kettle of fish. Kiffin emerged as a candidate for Auburn during its 2022 coaching search. Kiffin flirted with Auburn but stayed put. Ole Miss awarded him a richer deal. Auburn hired Hugh Freeze.
Where might Auburn be, entering Year 2 of a Kiffin regime? Kiffin wonât let his mind go there. Instead, he answers that question like this:
âI wouldnât see my daughter every day, which I do now,â Kiffin said of Landry, his oldest daughter, an Ole Miss sophomore. â⊠So, that would answer that question. Whatâs going to matter later on in life? Which one are you going to value more?â
As Kiffin embraces âradical acceptance,â Iâll add this radical thought: Kiffin didnât need Auburn, not when heâs built Ole Miss into a playoff contender.
Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss football have alchemy
Kiffin surprised even himself by staying at Ole Miss this long. Analytics would say a chic coach like Kiffin, with his 34-15 record at Ole Miss, wouldâve parlayed his success into a different job by now.
Kiffinâs success occurred, in part, because he stayed. He put down roots in Oxford long enough to build something. His 11 victories last season marked a career best.
âItâs really been amazing,â Kiffin said. âIf we wouldâve had this conversation 4Âœ years ago, I think most people wouldnât have bet onâ him still being at Ole Miss.
To some detractors, Kiffin always will be the coach who flopped with the Raiders, spurned Tennessee and got fired from his dream job. That narrative discounts that, for some people, past decisions help them wise up.
âI now believe that until you have really had your life, whether itâs personal life or job, whether youâve had one or both of those torn apart, to where you have to go rebuild it, until you do that, you really donât know yourself,â Kiffin said.
Even an evolved Lane remains Lane. He needles adversaries. (Be on guard, Eliah Drinkwitz and Brian Kelly.) Heâs still susceptible to impulses. Heck, heâs probably crafting his next pithy tweet as I type this. Heâs enraptured by his own cleverness.
But he also professes to possess more self-awareness than he once did.
The Kiffin of his 30s shot in like a comet and flamed out as quickly as he arrived. The Kiffin of his 40s reassembled his life and career.
Kiffin will turn 50 next spring. Whatâs in store for his next decade?
âI donât break as many favorite toys â just kidding,â Kiffin said. âJust kidding.â
Or, heâs not kidding. He didn't break or forsake Ole Miss. He nurtured it.
For much of Swiftâs latest album, she sings of loveâs fickleness and failed relationships with toy breakers, but she pivots in âThe Alchemy,â a love song with a more hopeful message.
Ole Miss hired Kiffin in a moment of need. Kiffin says he needed Ole Miss more. A brilliant match, they are. Who is he to fight the alchemy?
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, and newsletter, SEC Football Unfiltered. Subscribe to read all of his columns.