"On Sunday, LSU hired Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, capping the messiest saga in the sordid history of college-football-coach poaching. Kiffin left Ole Miss right before the Rebels host a game in the College Football Playoff, amid perhaps the best season the team has ever had. The coach, once known as a brilliant but obnoxious figure in the sport, has an unparalleled ability to leave jobs on bad terms."
"But he had spent the past few years softening his image. He was sober now, a better father. He'd found a home at a historic SEC mediocrity, Ole Miss, and built an elite program while doing hot yoga and tweeting lots of jokes. It was all, at the least, a neat branding exercise. But somehow, Lane Kiffin was not the most insincere person involved in his own move from Mississippi to Louisiana."
"In late October, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry made one of the loudest and theoretically boldest stands against the financial excesses of college football. Days earlier, LSU had fired Brian Kelly, the head coach who had gone 34-14 in three and a half years leading the Tigers. Usually, governors don't have much to do with football hiring and firing decisions. But Landry was apparently so incensed by the $54 million buyout the school would owe Kelly that he started throwing his weight around."
Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss to become LSU's coach, departing days before Ole Miss hosted a College Football Playoff game during perhaps its best season. Kiffin built a reputation for abandoning jobs on bad terms, including being called a con man by Raiders owner Al Davis, leaving Tennessee after one year for USC, and being fired at an airport. Returning to Tennessee later drew bottle-throwing from fans. Kiffin worked to soften his image—sobriety, fatherhood, hot yoga and joking tweets—while Louisiana governor Jeff Landry publicly opposed a $54 million buyout and intervened in LSU's coaching turmoil.
Read at Slate Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]