Former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has given his first interview since announcing he was leaving to be LSU’s next coach.
ESPN reporter Marty Smith spent most of Sunday camped out at the Manning Center in Oxford and was able to catch up with Kiffin before leaving for Baton Rouge.
You can see the full video below, but there are few interesting quotes from Kiffin that touch on some interesting topics.
Kiffin denies giving coaches ultimatum
In the interview, Smith asks Kiffin about the widely reported ultimatum Kiffin gave to assistant coaches. On3’s Chris Low broke the story about coaches being told if they’re not on the plane to Baton Rouge they wouldn’t be coming to LSU with him.
“I guess there’s a narrative because I hadn’t talked to the players about that,” Kiffin said to Smith. “Someone pumped a narrative in them that there was an ultimatum to coaches or something like that. There was nothing (like that). Every coach has their own decision to make, and I would never give them ultimatums like that. Those are all their own individual decisions.”
Unless someone secretly recorded Kiffin giving tell his coaches what was reported, we’ll likely never know for sure if it’s true.
Pete Carroll’s role
It was somewhat of a joke Saturday when Smith reported that Kiffin was still seeking advice from mentors like Nick Saban and Pete Carroll.
Apparently, Carroll’s advice was pretty direct.
“I talked to some mentors, Coach Carroll, Coach Saban, and especially when Coach Carroll said, ‘man, your dad would tell you to go, take the shot.’ Take the shot, you’ve accomplished a lot here.”
Ole Miss fans probably have a complicated relationship with Saban considering his success at Alabama. Now, Carroll may find himself in the same boat.
Ole Miss AD didn’t let Kiffin attend team meeting
There’s going to be a lot “he said-he said” in the next few days. One thing Kiffin said that’s probably true was about the decision for him to be at the team meeting.
“I totally respect Keith’s decision,” Kiffin said. “He asked me not to come to the meeting and said I couldn’t come. Which I totally understand. I don’t know that I necessarily agree with that. We’re trying to find a way to make this work and coach the team and give the team the best chance to win.
“But also, he’s got a job to do and like he said, he has to live here. Maybe all the national people understand why he should let me coach, but he has to live here and it’s a little different when you’re the AD. So, totally respect that and Keith has been amazing to us over the six years.”
Just like Carter had no choice about not letting Kiffin coach in the playoffs if he was leaving for LSU, there’s no way they could let Kiffin attend that meeting.
And if other reports are true, Kiffin did talk with some players earlier in the day. It, reportedly, didn’t go well.
