Lane Kiffin Says Ole Miss Fans Tried to Run Him Off Road After Taking LSU Job

Ole Miss football fans have made their views clear on Lane Kiffin leaving their school for LSU before a likely College Football Playoff run — and they’re not happy.

According to Kiffin, 50, at least one fan even tried to run him off the road while he was in the car with his 16-year-old son, Knox. The father of three recalled the scene during his introductory press conference at LSU on Monday, December 1. (Lane and his ex wife, Layla Kiffin, also share daughters Landry, 20, and Presley, 18.)

“It was really hard. I’m human,” Lane said. “Even though you understand it’s the passion [of the fans], you’re with your son and you’re driving and you got to call a cop that you know so they’ll help you because you… got to turn around and people are screaming at you, trying to run you off the road.”

Lane went from the Ole Miss football program’s savior to a pariah in Oxford overnight when he accepted the LSU job on Sunday, November 30. The Rebels are 11-1, fresh off a rivalry win over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl, and have a realistic shot at the program’s first national championship since 1962. Ole Miss went 55-19 over Lane’s six-year tenure.

Many fans viewed his decision to leave as a betrayal.

Lane also acknowledged the ire of the fans waiting for him at the Oxford airport, who booed him, hurled expletives and threw plenty of middle fingers his way.

“That airport scene and all the things being said, I understand it,” he said. “It’s the passion. But they’re saying that about you…you thought you did a really good job for six years for them. That affects you. Even on the plane down here, I’m kinda, like, ‘Man we made this discussion but, God.’”

As soon as he landed in Baton Rouge, however, Lane said he decided to look optimistically toward the future.

”When I got off that plane and I saw the board there and I saw the [university] leadership and I felt the power of this place,” Lane described. “And then we get in the car and as we’re driving out, and there’s the fans, just all of them out there at the airport and their excitement and their passion….and you go by Tiger Stadium and it’s lit up and you’re like, ‘I absolutely made the right decision’ and it all went away.”

Lane added that despite the vitriol from Ole Miss fans, he hopes one day to repair his relationship with them.

“Time heals a lot of things, and having gone through this in this conference before, I sure hope that happens,” he said.

That may take a while. Lane has said publicly that he wanted to continue to coach Ole Miss through the postseason before leaving for Baton Rouge, but athletic director Keith Carter denied his request.

Carter, 49, has instead elevated defensive coordinator Pete Golding to the role of permanent head coach.

“Coach Kiffin and I met yesterday, and he informed us that he is accepting the head coaching position at another school,” Carter said in a statement released Sunday. “For our program to begin preparing for its future – both the short and long term, he will be stepping away from the team immediately.”