Before Kiffin\u2019s exit, Ole Miss was having a great season. On September 27, the Rebels beat LSU 24-19, and on October 25, they celebrated a massive win against Oklahoma, bringing them closer to the College Football Playoffs. Later during the season, after a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M, LSU fired its head coach, Brian Kelly. At this point, it was rumored that Kiffin would be leaving Ole Miss for either USC or Florida, which had fired head coach Billy Napier earlier that month. Then, on November 15, Ole Miss beat UF 34-24. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the game, when asked about his future plans, Kiffin shared, \u201cToday was awesome. I don’t talk about that stuff. Really, to even talk about it right now would be disrespectful to our players and to how well they played today. So, you know, we got a lot of things going here, doing really well. And I love it here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 16, just one day after that quote, Kiffin and his family visited UF, and on November 17, they traveled to Louisiana, making it clear that big changes were in the works. On November 21, Keith Carter, Ole Miss\u2019s athletic director, announced, \u201cThis team is on the cusp of an unprecedented season, and it’s imperative they feel the support of the Ole Miss family in the week ahead. An announcement on Coach Kiffin’s future is expected the Saturday following the game,\u201d following his meeting with Kiffin and Chancellor Glen Boyce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 22, Brandon Marcello of CBS reported that LSU offered Kiffin up to $98 million for seven years.<\/a> It was later reported that he will earn $13 million annually, $4 million more than what he was earning at Ole Miss. He went from being the eleventh-highest-paid coach in College Football to the second, just behind Kirby Smart of Georgia. Additionally, Kiffin received $250,000 after Ole Miss\u2019s win against Tulane and $500,000 for the win against Georgia<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A month before CBS\u2019s report, Kiffin was on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show,\u201d where he shared that he was not \u201cgoing to make a decision off of money, nor do I care about it.” While it\u2019s unclear if he was completely honest, what is clear is that Kiffin was determined to win his first championship as head coach and believed that LSU would bring him closer to doing so. He liked that LSU had a great recruiting base and he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Nick Saban and Pete Carroll. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n On November 28, Ole Miss won the Egg Bowl 38-19 against Mississippi State, with fans eagerly anticipating Kiffin\u2019s decision. Afterwards, Kiffin met with Ole Miss administrators to see if he could continue coaching the Rebels into their postseason even though he was leaving, but the administration refused. Thus, on November 30 at 2:03 PM, Kiffin shared the following statement to X: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: Lane Kiffin via X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-6-1024x991.png\")
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