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’Â four full-time coaches this century to not win a national championship (Nick Saban, 2003; Les Miles, 2007; Ed Orgeron, 2019).
