Kiffin Mess Perfect Louisiana Fit

By Jim Gazzolo

The chaos surrounding the LSU football coaching search is classic Louisiana.

Six other colleges filled their open spots last Monday, but LSU was the only one to hold a circus.

Part of that is due to the coach himself. Lane Kiffin seems to change jobs with the sensitivity of a wrecking ball.

Only when he left Florida Atlantic did Kiffin have a smooth transition from one job to the next. 

This time, he expected to coach two teams simultaneously. That way, he could win something. 

But there are no two-week notices in college football. Kiffin should have learned that when his mentor, Nick Saban, threw him out of the Alabama press box the week of the national championship because he took another job.

No question, Kiffin was the hottest name in this coaching cycle. Whether he was the best coach or not, we will find out in time. 

One thing is for sure: Baton Rouge won’t be boring while he’s there. How long that’s for probably depends on whether the NFL ever comes calling again. He could be just a couple of years from being asked to drive down the road and save the Saints, but 

NFL owners don’t like drama from their coaches. Kiffin may never get another call.

The Saints sure could use the help, though. 

Kiffin is a lot of things to a lot of people.

He is a classic self-promoter. Just this fall, ESPN released a documentary in which he proclaimed that he was a different guy, happy and in love with Oxford, Miss.

Whether that was honest or not, it worked. People suddenly liked Lane Kiffin. Then, in the last two weeks, he took a match to that re-made image.

Now, he’s back to being college football’s No. 1 villain. On his way, he tried to burn it all down. 

No question, Kiffin has a right to take whatever job he wants, and —like his predecessor at LSU did— he feels he can win a title there a lot easier. It worked out for Brian Kelly in one way; he’s getting paid $54 million not to work, which is a good business plan.

Maybe Kiffin will have better luck than ending with a 7-5 season that barely beat Western Kentucky. We’ll see. 

As for Louisiana, it’s the only state currently paying three coaches not to coach in their upcoming bowl game. Ed Orgeron, who hasn’t been coaching since 2021, comes off the payroll this month.

Not all of this mess is on Kiffin. LSU officials handled this coach-firing and search with all the grace of throwing hand grenades. 

Even the state’s governor got involved. He said Louisiana would never enter into big contracts with big buyouts again while he was in charge, after Kelly was fired.

So LSU went bigger. Well, that’s politics, folks.

None of this matters to LSU fans, who celebrated the hiring with the same passion they did when Brian Kelly was hired. Of course, they distance themselves from that now, proclaiming they knew from the beginning he never really fit into the culture down here. 

Kelly is from the Northeast.

But Kiffin, well, he’s one of them despite initially wanting to go to Florida and being from California and looking like he would rather be on a beach. 

It all adds up to more interesting times ahead at LSU. 

It’s all so perfectly…Louisiana.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers sports in Southwest Louisiana. He is also the host of Poke Nation, which airs weekly on CBS Lake Charles.