Lane Kiffin’s circus finally folded its tents Sunday afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi, rolling south to Baton Rouge, Louisiana — bringing to a close what might go down as the weirdest multi-week saga in college football history.
Even after the writing had been spray-painted on the wall for those weeks that Kiffin was bailing on his 11-1, playoff-bound Ole Miss squad to chase the LSU rebuild, he finally confirmed it Sunday with a social media statement that, of course, contained zero traces of self-awareness.
Kiffin insisted he wanted to stick around and coach his Rebels through the College Football Playoff, which is still three weeks away, but Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter delivered the awkward but inevitable verdict: no chance, coach — you’re done in Oxford. (RELATED: If College Football Wasn’t Already Dead, Lane Kiffin Just Killed It)
Kiffin may have just delivered Ole Miss its first-ever 11-win campaign, but letting him coach the CFP run while the whole sport is aware he’s already agreed to jump to arch-rival LSU (an enemy just as big as Mississippi State) was a non-starter, and that made Carter’s decision a whole lot cleaner.
Still, this twist cranked an already bizarre saga to new levels of unprecedented. The Rebels had the task to replace its head coach just weeks prior to probably hosting a postseason contest. Most figured defensive coordinator Pete Golding or quarterbacks coach Joe Judge would get the interim status, but Carter and the school’s administration said “nah” and went straight to naming Golding the full-time head coach.
Carter stepped up and declared Golding the new sheriff in Oxford, and judging by the instant roar from the room (and the players leaping out of their seats from the sounds of it), the Rebels are 100% locked in behind him. You can even hear chancellor Glenn Boyce in the background firing the team up like it’s kickoff already.
LISTEN:
Someone apparently snuck a phone into the Ole Miss meeting & recorded audiopic.twitter.com/XyamzkcaEn
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) November 30, 2025
According to Trey Wallace of OutKick, Kiffin wasn’t around for the team meeting. Earlier in the day, the leadership council sat down with their soon-to-be-ex head coach, and by all accounts the conversation went about as smoothly as a flat tire on I-55.
