LSU

The proverbial purple-and-gold smoke may billow from Tiger Stadium as early as Sunday morning.

LSU is expected to hire Lane Kiffin as its next head coach after years of mutual intrigue between involved parties and a chaotic two-plus weeks of particularly heavy rumors and a final weekend of the regular season on which his decision effectively hung over all of college football media.

Kiffin is scheduled to meet with his Ole Miss players at 9 a.m. Sunday to discuss his future and intends to coach the Tigers in 2026, according to multiple national insiders, with a lucrative agreement in place to not only make him one of the sport’s highest-paid coaches, but also provide him with ample investment for roster-building.

ESPN’s Marty Smith, who spent the weekend on-site in Oxford, Miss., shared the news of the meeting. The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman wrote Saturday on LSU’s continued confidence Kiffin would be making the move to Baton Rouge. And, late Saturday night, On3’s Chris Low, Brett McMurphy and Pete Nakos reported further on the coach’s intentions.

The biggest delays and sticking points Saturday appeared to center on his hopes to continue leading the Rebels through the upcoming postseason with McMurphy sharing a source calling those discussions “even messier than expected as emotions are high.”

LSU identified the Ole Miss coach early on as their top target to rejuvenate the program that entered this fall with College Football Playoff goals after heavy offseason roster investment and instead stumbled to a disappointing campaign that cost now-former coach Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan their jobs.

Kiffin was also heavily tied to the Florida vacancy early on, but ultimately opted for the Tigers over other SEC options, including the opportunity to remain in Oxford, Miss., where he has posted a 55-19 record in six seasons and has the Rebels ranked No. 7 in the country and poised for their first College Football Playoff berth.

The son of longtime, legendary NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin earned his first head coaching opportunity in 2007 at just 31 years old with the then-Oakland Raiders after six years on staff at USC where he was increasingly regarded as one of the sport’s most promising young offensive minds.

Oakland fired the younger Kiffin early in his second season with the franchise, leading to a return to the college ranks where he headed programs at Tennessee in 2009, USC from 2010 to 2013, Florida Atlantic from 2017 to 2019 and then Ole Miss since 2020 and spent 2014 to 2016 as Alabama’s offensive coordinator under Nick Saban.

Kiffin holds a career 117-53 record as a head coach, including leading Ole Miss to 10-plus wins in four of the past five seasons, a first stretch of its kind in its history, including this season marking its first-ever 11-win regular season.

The Rebels have been the sixth-winningest program in a Power-Four conference during his tenure behind only Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan and Oregon.

Kiffin will succeed Kelly, who was fired Oct. 26 midway through his fourth season, and interim coach Frank Wilson III, who coached receivers on Kiffin’s 2009 Tennessee staff.

LSU moved on from Kelly following an embarrassing 49-25 loss to Texas A&M marked a third loss in less than a month for a team with Playoff aspirations and expectations after a heavy financial investment in offseason roster-building.

The former Notre Dame coach finished his tenure in Baton Rouge with a 34-14 overall record, but 19-10 in regular-season SEC play and 5-10 against ranked teams and as the first of the Tigers’  four full-time coaches this century to not win a national championship (Nick Saban, 2003; Les Miles, 2007; Ed Orgeron, 2019).

LSU’s long-frustrating season of offensive shortcomings arguably saved its worst for last on a Saturday in which ineffective performance ultimately outweighed commendable effort and left the door open for No. 8 Oklahoma escape a potential upset bid.

The Tigers (7-5, 3-5) finished with season-lows in total yards, passing yards, first downs and third-down conversions and their second-lowest scoring output, yet still battled their way to leads in the third and fourth quarters thanks to a largely solid defensive effort.

But the Sooners (10-2, 6-2) finally broke through with 45- and 58-yard explosive plays to survive, 17-13, and seemingly secure a College Football Playoff spot.

Junior receiver Isaiah Sategna, the son of former LSU track athletes, blew through a busted coverage for the go-ahead strike from junior John Mateer with 4:16 remaining.

And though a 47-yard kick return by Barion Brown set up the Tigers near midfield for a potential late answer, Oklahoma effectively sealed the victory with an eventual fourth-down stop at its 29.

LSU managed just 198 yards of offense — 113 through the air and 85 on the ground, and went 2-for-14 (14.3%) on third downs — a number actually improved by a conversion on the final drive.

After entering the fall with high expectations, the Tigers finished the regular season without scoring more than 25 points against any of their 11 FBS opponents.

All either team could score in the first half was a field goal each: a 38-yarder by Tate Sandell for a first-quarter lead for the Sooners, then a 25-yard answer early in the second by Damian Ramos.

An interception and 42-yard return by senior safety A.J. Haulcy on the opening possession of the third quarter gifted LSU great starting field position at the Oklahoma 33 en route to the game’s first touchdown.

Four plays later, sophomore quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. swung the ball out to senior wide receiver Zavion Thomas (John Ehret) for the goal-line score.

Freshman cornerback D.J. Pickett intercepted Mateer the next possession to highlight a series of traded stops in the quarter.

But the Sooners’ quarterback bounced back and eventually tied the game at 10-10 later in the third on a tunnel screen than Deion Burks popped for a 47-yard score.

The Tigers reclaimed an edge midway through the fourth quarter on a 43-yard Ramos kick and then forced a quick three-and-out.

LSU punted the ball right back, though, and Mateer and Sategna connected on the dagger to flip the script.

Sophomore quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. finished 14-for-25 (56.0%) for 96 yards, a touchdown and an interception and rushed five times for 33 yards.

Sophomore running back Caden Durham ran six times for 42 yards, and Thomas caught three passes for 30 yards.

Sophomore linebacker Davhon Keys led the defense with eight tackles, including one for loss, and a forced fumble.

Haulcy had seven tackles and an interception, and junior linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. had six tackles, an interception and a hurry.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin tried to open his program’s Egg Bowl rivalry week by attempting to head off the increasingly loud discussion of his professional future.

The Rebels’ sixth-year leader praised Mississippi State and the job second-year coach Jeff Lebby has done with the Bulldogs, spoke on the significance of the matchup both for its tradition and for the opportunities at play this year for the teams.

But about half Monday’s questions centered on — whether directly or tangentially — Kiffin’s ongoing process for determining where he’ll coach in 2026 and beyond — with expectations increasingly pointing to a departure and, most likely, to LSU.

And, for every “fair question, but we’re not answering anything that doesn’t have to do with the game and the team and the season,” he left the door open for the ongoing speculation as he could not

“I mean, you can just keep going,” he responded to one reporter. “I’m not gonna answer ’em, so that’s three of ’em. You got another one?”

In all, Kiffin fielded eight questions on some angle or another of the reluctant, but preeminent topic of his press conference.

Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter released a statement Friday stated that an announcement would be made Saturday, Nov. 29, following the Friday’s game in Starkville.

Kiffin declined Monday to specify whether that meant a decision had been made and would be announced later or that he was still weighing his options.

“Like I said at the beginning, very fair question, but we’re not answering anything that doesn’t have to do with the game and the team and the season,” he said.

Some of Kiffin’s most detailed responses came when praising quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels overall for their navigation of potential distractions not only this week, but throughout the season.

He posed that players’ mentalities and ability to handle circumstances of the nature currently surrounding him and the team are much different in the modern era of the transfer portal than in years past.

“It’s a different generation, guys,” Kiffin said. “I know it’s different than what we were in when players couldn’t leave and players chose to go play for their home state a lot and all that. This is a different generation. They all can leave every year, and a lot of that is financially based, so they don’t think the traditional way that years ago about their coach and what’s gonna go on with him next year. That’s not how they think anymore. So that makes it a lot easier to not listen to the noise, because as a fan that noise is really loud because it’s your team and it’s your team for a long time. These kids don’t think that way. It’s a product of the system.”

Kiffin also took more time to discuss how his perspective has changed over time on some of his past job changes, including tumultuous firings by the Oakland Raiders and USC Trojans with an abrupt departure from Tennessee in between.

He referenced a realization learned from reflection on the frequent movement of his father, legendary NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, throughout his long coaching career.

“Over the years of the changes I’ve made, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on things that have happened, and I really feel like in age I’ve figured out they all happened exactly how they were supposed to happen, when they were supposed to happen,” he said. “I just didn’t think it at the time. I thought they were disasters. And they’re just all part of my story.

“You know, I spoke at my dad’s funeral when he passed, and I always wondered why we moved so much because it was hard on us as kids and everything. And I realized that was just all part of his story, and all the people that came to the funeral or wrote notes from all the different places, I realized that was God’s plan for him to impact all those people and have all those relationships. So I think that all the stuff that happened happened how it was supposed to happen.”

The countdown is now on for the official announcement of what will happen next.

LSU will close its regular season Saturday with the first trip in program history to Oklahoma.

The Tigers (7-4, 3-4) have long fallen short of their College Football Playoff aspirations, leaving the matchup’s national implications one-sided as the No. 8 Sooners (9-2, 5-2) aim to hang on to a top-10 spot and earn their first berth since 2019.

But interim coach Frank Wilson III emphasized LSU still has plenty of its own motivations to finish what has been a tumultuous 2025 season on a strong note.

“For us, we want to go 8-4,” Wilson said. “We want to go 8-4. Right now we’re sitting at 7-4. In the month of November, we’re sitting at 2-1, undefeated at home. So I try to find the good that they can see. Alright we’re 2-0 at home in the month of November. We’re 2-1 in a very difficult month. How do you finish? How do you want to be remembered? How do you want your legacy to go out? We can go out here and go play the way we’re capable of playing to the best of our ability and see where the chips may fall. We can go out here and wave the white flag and say, ‘You know, no one expected. We’re not going to the playoffs.’

“What’s your legacy? How do you want this team to be remembered? And 8-4 is a lot better than 7-5. So for us, it’s about self-reflection. It’s about how we want to be remembered. It’s about going on the road playing a top-10 team who will be favored to beat you. “So here’s our underdog story. Let’s talk about that. And let’s prepare, and let’s see. Let’s see just see how we perform when our backs are against the wall. We’ve been here before, and our week of preparation will determine that.”