LSU's Lane Kiffin Discusses Past Comments Made About Ole Miss, CFB Recruiting

Ole Miss and SEC officials are reportedly discussing a "potential reprimand" for LSU head coach Lane Kiffin, according to Matt Hayes of USA Today, after Kiffin suggested that some recruits were wary of playing in Oxford, Mississippi on racial grounds.

The new LSU coach defended his comments on Monday, however.

"People don't read the actual words I used in the article," he told Hayes. "I said, 'A parent said.' That's not me saying it as my opinion."

Kiffin's original comments came during an article from Chris Smith of Vanity Fair on May 11:

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. When he was coaching there, Kiffin says, top recruits would tell him, "'Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren't letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi.' That doesn't come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 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.'" (The next day Kiffin added, "I just hope [my comment] comes across respectful to Ole Miss... There are some things that I'm saying that are factual, they're not shots." The population of Baton Rouge is about 51 percent Black and 36 percent white; Oxford is about 66 percent white, 26 percent Black.)

The SEC is considering either a public reprimand, fine or both.

Kiffin, 51, spent six seasons as the head coach at Ole Miss before taking the LSU job in November. That made him public enemy No. 1 in Oxford, as he ultimately left the team before its College Football Playoff campaign began (despite efforts to remain with the school through the postseason).