Lane Kiffin Explains Why Ole Miss Loses Recruits and Impact on His Decision to Take LSU HC Job

While Lane Kiffin had 91 million reasons to leave Ole Miss for LSU, the coach alluded to certain structural barriers that led him to question the Rebels' ceiling.

Kiffin told Vanity Fair's Chris Smith that LSU can draw "adult money" into the football program in a bid to win a title. His concerns about attracting the requisite talent went beyond pure finances.

"Kiffin also seems willing to indirectly invoke Ole Miss's struggle to distance itself from symbols like the Confederate flag, Colonel Rebel, and the nickname 'Ole Miss' itself," Smith wrote.

Without citing specific examples, Kiffin said some players declined to choose at the behest of older relatives.

"That doesn't come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana," he told Smith. "Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus's diversity feels so great: 'It feels like there's no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that's the real world.'"

Kiffin's remarks aren't necessarily revelatory.

As early as 1997, then-coach Tommy Tuberville cited his belief that the presence of the Confederate flag at football games was turning away prospective recruits.

In 2015, Ole Miss students voted to remove the Mississippi state flag from campus due to the fact it included the Confederate battle flag in its design.

Kiffin and Mike Leach, who coached Mississippi State at the time, voiced their support in 2020 at the state legislature to remove the Confederate iconography from the state flag. The state officially introduced a new flag in 2021.

Kiffin attracted a lot of talent to Oxford. Twenty-five players went on to get picked in the NFL draft following his arrival. Clearly he believes he can do more at LSU.

In terms of staying at Ole Miss, the 51-year-old also pondered whether the goodwill would remain in the event the Rebels' on-field fortunes started to wane.

"Once you make those expectations, they forget the stadium was half empty when we got there," he said. "Once you involve money, everything changes."

Look no further than Alabama to understand Kiffin's point. Nick Saban brought six national titles to the Crimson Tide, but the pressure was building toward the end of his tenure when the championships stopped.

Clemson's Dabo Swinney has dealt with the same thing for years despite being one of the best coaches in program history.

It's fair to question Kiffin's priorities when he bolted Ole Miss ahead of the College Football Playoff. But skyrocketing salaries for coaches has led fanbases to be even more demanding and less satisfied by past success.

Kiffin has no qualms about taking the LSU job and believes he achieved plenty with his old employer: "Did you make the university tons of money? Are out-of-state applications way up? Did the city make tons of money—businesses, real estate? I mean, this is not a normal big city. This is Oxford, Mississippi."

Whether he's setting the record straight or not, interviews such as this are only raising the bar higher for Kiffin in Baton Rouge.