The LSU Tigers bought what they wished, hiring Lane Kiffin as their new coach on Sunday.
Kiffin didn’t get every thing he wished, nevertheless, and he is not going to be teaching Ole Miss for the rest of the season because the Rebels eye a spot within the Faculty Soccer Playoff.
“After quite a lot of prayer and time spent with household, I made the troublesome choice to simply accept the top teaching place at LSU,” Kiffin stated in an announcement Sunday.
His take care of LSU is for seven years and is value roughly $12 million yearly, with the potential for bonuses, a supply informed ESPN’s Pete Thamel. That may make him one of many highest-paid coaches within the sport.
Kiffin, 50, and the Rebels simply wrapped up an 11-1 common season with a 38-19 win over rival Mississippi State, all however assuring them a berth within the 12-team Faculty Soccer Playoff.
After saying he would resolve Saturday whether or not he’ll coach at Ole Miss or LSU in 2026, Kiffin met with Rebels athletics director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce for a few hours on the chancellor’s house in Oxford.
He additionally sought the recommendation of former Alabama coach Nick Saban and Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll, his former boss at USC, over the previous few weeks.
“I hoped to finish a historic six season run with this yr’s staff by main Ole Miss by means of the playoffs, capitalizing on the staff’s unimaginable success and their dedication to complete sturdy, and investing every thing right into a playoff run with guardrails in place to guard this system in any areas of concern,” Kiffin stated in his assertion.
“My request to take action was denied by Keith Carter regardless of the staff additionally asking him to permit me to maintain teaching them so they might higher keep their excessive stage of efficiency. Sadly, meaning Friday’s Egg Bowl was my final sport teaching the Rebels.”
Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding will “100%” be the Rebels’ “everlasting” head coach shifting ahead, a supply informed ESPN.
Whereas Florida and LSU courted Kiffin, Carter and Boyce had been adamant that he would not be allowed to teach the Rebels within the CFP if Kiffin took a job with an SEC rival. Kiffin had lobbied the Ole Miss directors to vary their minds, however Carter and Boyce dug of their heels on that difficulty.
Ole Miss does not need Kiffin round its gamers with the switch portal opening on Jan. 2. The Rebels additionally don’t need their CFP video games to be a “business” for LSU’s future underneath Kiffin.
Even with Kiffin leaving, the Rebels will in all probability nonetheless be within the combine to host a first-round CFP sport at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Dec. 19 or 20.
Kiffin has guided the Rebels to a 55-19 report in his six seasons — solely Alabama (67-12) and Georgia (71-8) have extra wins within the SEC because the begin of the 2020 season. The Rebels have the eighth-most wins amongst power-conference groups throughout that stretch.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Pete Thamel contributed to this report.