Thursday is the final day of SEC Media Days and the fun got started early Thursday morning.
Former Ole Miss coach and first-year LSU coach Lane Kiffin was the first speaker of the day. Kiffin’s appearance was one of the most anticipated press conferences of the week because of his personality and what happened last year when he left Ole Miss for LSU before the College Football Playoff game.
Somewhat surprisingly, there wasn’t much talk about Ole Miss. In fact, only one question was asked that tied back to the Rebels. That full question about his comments in the infamous Vanity Fair article and his complete response are below.
Lane Kiffin, LSU Head Coach
At Ole Miss, you produced one of the SEC’s highest win totals, developed NFL players and consistently signed highly ranked portal classes. However, you said in a Vanity Fair article that Oxford’s lack of diversity hurt talent acquisition. Do you believe those results would have been even better with more diversity?
Kiffin: I had a feeling that was going somewhere. You were giving me really positive information the whole way through. I was thinking, “Man, this guy is good. It sounds like he should go work for Jimmy Sexton.”
I made a challenging decision and changed jobs. Looking back, I thought I could find a way for everybody to understand that decision. Now, I realize that was never going to happen. I made the decision to change jobs.
As I get older and go through things, including losing both of my parents, my perspective has changed. I was talking to Ross Dellenger and said something that might sound funny. I watched the Hulk Hogan special and realized we’re all going to die. Some of the things we place importance on, worry about or hear people say really aren’t going to matter. When I lost my dad, I started thinking about that. Growing up, there were two people I thought would never die: my dad and Hulk Hogan.
Then I watched that special and realized Hulk Hogan died, too. There was no way Hulk Hogan was ever going to stop wrestling and die—but he did. It made me reflect on the fact that I can’t be so concerned about little things or what different people say.
You have to make decisions and live with them. Sometimes you make really good decisions, and sometimes you make poor decisions. That was a poor use of a term that I believe—like many coaches who have worked there—was factual. But within the context of the interview, it was bad timing and a poor use of the word. It is what it is. I apologized when I said it, and I’m moving on.
