Lane Kiffin is college football’s unlikely new Zen master
Lane Kiffin still likes to prod on social media and troll for laughs sometimes but on two recent podcasts, the Ole Miss coach sounded, what’s the word, mature?
It was surprising in recent days to see Kiffin pop up on the Theo Von and Pivot podcasts and talk about growing up and learning and being a better father and doing yoga and quitting drinking and so much more.
Was this the same guy who got fired at LAX in the wee hours at USC? That had people blocking his path out of Knoxville by burning a mattress when he took the USC job? That got then-Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis in a rage as Davis said Kiffin “disgraced” the organization? That got canned by then-Alabama coach Nick Saban ahead of the national championship game as he pursued the FAU job?
Yes, it was. And it was a really refreshing side of Kiffin to see. He’s still driving recruits around like an Uber driver in Oxford and telling people to “Come to The Sip” but the Kiffin on these podcasts was extraordinarily interesting to listen to.
And whether it was a recruiting pitch for recruits to see or a venting session or Kiffin turning over a new leaf, it’s bringing Ole Miss football back into focus in a very positive light.
In incredibly honest terms, he talked about failing as a father and a husband at one point – and growing from it. This was full-on zen Kiffin.
“I use my failures and experiences to help others and it’s awesome because I use that to help others,” Kiffin said. “I help our players go through it. I like that I had a lot happen to me or self-inflicted stuff. I struggled for a long time. But now I see I get to help because the coach knows my story or I can help them with things.
“OK, like the balance of a husband, father and head coach. I failed at that. As a head coach, I was a head coach at Tennessee and USC and that was my higher power. That’s who I am. Not oh, I’m a husband, I’m a father. (Being a coach) was the most important thing to me.”
He was honest (after years of rumors that he wanted to head back West to coach) that he now appreciates Oxford and a slower, Southern lifestyle. At first, people would talk and talk and talk to him and he’d see people sitting in rocking chairs and not get it. He was moving too fast, thinking too much. Now, coming up on his 50th birthday in early May, maybe Kiffin is appreciating life a little more.
It might also be making him a better coach.
“I moved here because it was an SEC head job and I thought we could win and do a great job,” Kiffin said. “It wasn’t like I’m just dying to move to Oxford, Mississippi. But I also didn’t know much about it either so I just judged it that way, the way a lot of people do about Mississippi.
“At first, it was a lot. I spent most of my time before that in South Florida or in LA at USC. At first, I was like, this is a lot, long-winded, a lot of conversations, slow moving. But then you say thank you, it’s not over. They just keep going.
“I love it now. It’s a warmth, a sweetness, hospitality and people being nice. That has slowed me down. I was always – what job can I get, how fast can I move, how many championships to win, just always moving. I was like, maybe they’re on to something here. Maybe this slow-down thing that I was judging at first, I made jokes about the rocking chairs. People sit in rocking chairs. Now I love it.”
Kiffin said he used to envision success by having a statue outside of a football stadium named after him because he won so many games and so many championships. Like Saban.
“But I was totally missing it,” Kiffin said. “Because if you asked me now what do I want, I want to be a really good dad, I want to be a really good boss, a really good friend, a really good neighbor.”
A psychoanalyst might tell you Kiffin has become more reflective and introspective after his father’s passing in July. From the coaching tree of Monte Kiffin, Pete Carroll and Saban, Kiffin has seen it all and been through it all and has taken pieces of all of them into his own coaching career.
Kiffin said some of his offense is designed around what those three defensive geniuses didn’t like defending.
But the stories Kiffin told of his father on these podcasts cast a wider light on how his own thinking has changed recently.
“His impact on people and what I figured out after his passing by all the people down there in Tampa and I knew them already and I knew the stories there, and you have four gold jackets speaking at his funeral on that defense and the way they talk about how they impacted him,” Kiffin said of his dad.
“Then I go back to Lexington, Nebraska, where he’s from for the burial and the people at the gas station knowing him forever or a trainer at Nebraska who he still called once a year for 40 years, nothing was transactional. That is rare. He had all these relationships with people and it wasn’t to get anything back. I find that really hard, especially nowadays, to find.”
Kiffin talked about how he feels his father isn’t gone but just “next door” so he could watch his son get better, to improve both on and off the field.
All these anecdotes went on and on: He joked about certain yoga poses, talked about his ex-wife and son, Knox, a 2028 QB moving to Oxford, the cost-benefit analysis of the transfer portal and how the grass isn’t always greener, his diet and sobriety and living in the South.
Ole Miss was 10-3 last season but it felt like a miss for the Rebels since they were good enough to make the College Football Playoff. They finished with a 32-point walloping of Duke in the bowl game and Kiffin has been quite vocal about who should be in the playoff and who shouldn’t. Surprise: He wants more SEC teams in.
Kiffin is still Kiffin – smart, sarcastic, biting, mind always going. But at least in these podcasts it seems like he’s mellowed, become more introspective, found more happiness.
For the most part. Since Kiffin admitted he still runs his own social media and sometimes even posts things that other SEC coaches in their group chat won’t put up publicly. He’s still Lane, and college football loves (or hates) him for it.
“Sometimes we just troll, too,” Kiffin said. “Sometimes, just to mess with some people.”
