Lane Kiffin's future is finally known: He's leaving Ole Miss and heading to LSU

Lane Kiffin finally made his decision.

After weeks of public scrutiny and private consternation about his future and a Saturday that came and went without an announcement, Kiffin has finalized an agreement to become the next head coach at LSU.

Kiffin just finished his sixth season at Ole Miss. The Rebels are 11-1 and likely headed for a spot in the College Football Playoff after beating rival Mississippi State on Friday. LSU finished 7-5 after losing to Oklahoma on Saturday.

In his statement announcing his departure, Kiffin said he wanted to coach the Rebels in the postseason but the school would not acquiesce to that request. He also claimed that Ole Miss players wanted him to stay on as head coach even after taking the LSU job.

"After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU," Kiffin wrote.

"I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year's team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team's incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everything into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern. My request to do so was denied by [Ole Miss athletic director] Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance. Unfortunately, that means Friday's Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels."

"While I am looking forward to a new start with a unique opportunity at LSU, I will forever cherish the incredible six years I spent at Ole Miss and will be rooting hard for the team to complete their mission and bring a championship to Oxford."

As the hours ticked by on Saturday without a decision from Kiffin, it became clearer and clearer that he was likely headed to LSU. The school even made arrangements on Saturday night to send two planes to get Kiffin and his family from Oxford on Sunday morning.

Defensive coordinator Pete Golding will be the Rebels' next coach according to numerous reports. Even though there were public pushes from media members and television personalities in recent days for Kiffin to still coach the Rebels in the postseason while also heading to LSU and the coach himself said he had pushed to do the same, that never felt like a realistic scenario.

After all the two schools are longtime rivals. And Kiffin has failed at balancing two jobs in the postseason before. Kiffin was hired as Florida Atlantic's head coach at the end of the 2017 season and was set to stay with Alabama through the end of the Tide's season. However, Kiffin left Alabama for FAU before the Crimson Tide played in the national title game.

Elevating Golding also prevents Ole Miss for having to scramble for an external search. As Kiffin's decision lingered on Sunday, other teams in the SEC filled their job openings. Florida is making Tulane's Jon Sumrall its next coach, Auburn hired South Florida's Alex Golesh and Arkansas hired Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield.

Additionally, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea inked extensions with their schools over the Thanksgiving holiday. They had been seen as contenders to move elsewhere in the SEC.

Kiffin’s coaching decision had played out very publicly in recent weeks and reached a crescendo in mid-November when family members visited both Gainesville and Baton Rouge in consecutive days as Kiffin also flirted with Florida. Kiffin continued to say that he wouldn’t comment publicly on the coaching search, but it became a dominant late-season storyline.

While both the Gators and Tigers have historically been more successful than an Ole Miss team that has gone over 60 years since it last won an SEC title, Kiffin has positioned the program above both schools in recent years. Ole Miss has won at least 10 games in four the last five seasons and will set a school record for wins in a single season with just one more victory.

That success has come as Kiffin has become one of the best coaches at navigating the transfer portal and Ole Miss has been one of the best schools in the country at modernizing its NIL budget to become an attractive place for both transfers and recruits. The Rebels’ starting quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, is a transfer from Division II Ferris State and RB Kewan Lacy, the second-leading rusher in the SEC, is a transfer from Missouri.

Golding, whose wife is an Ole Miss alum and a member of the school’s faculty, has been at Ole Miss for the past three seasons. He came to Oxford after he spent five seasons as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.