Lane Kiffin’s move from Ole Miss to LSU was always going to stir emotion across the SEC, but one voice helped cut through the noise when the decision mattered most: Nick Saban’s. Nearly six weeks after being introduced in Baton Rouge, Kiffin finally shared the full weight of that conversation. And why it pushed him to take the leap.
Speaking Tuesday at The Leadership Power Breakfast, Kiffin revealed that Saban, his former boss and longtime mentor, didn’t mince words.
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“You know, Lane, you’ll always regret if you don’t go to LSU. It’s the best job in America,” Saban told him. Kiffin said that advice ultimately tipped the scales during a moment when he was deeply torn about leaving a thriving Ole Miss program.
The Tigers’ new head coach described the move as a necessary jolt out of comfort. Ole Miss, he said, was doing “amazing things,” but LSU represented something bigger. “You come here and you feel the power of the place,” Kiffin explained. “And it drives you every day to even go to another level.”
Saban’s involvement, however, didn’t sit well with everyone. The Alabama legend took some heat for appearing to nudge Kiffin toward an intra-conference jump, especially with Ole Miss still in the national title hunt at the time. Kiffin added fuel to that fire during his Dec. 1 press conference when he acknowledged that nearly everyone he consulted outside Mississippi, including Saban and Pete Carroll, gave him the same advice: don’t pass up LSU.
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Saban later addressed the backlash himself, insisting he didn’t make the decision for Kiffin. “I did not make a decision for anybody,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show. “You can’t go from one SEC school to another without a whole bunch of people getting pissed off. That’s just the reality.”
Still, Saban acknowledged the passion on both sides and understood why his words carried weight.
Beyond Saban, Kiffin leaned on another formative figure: Pete Carroll. Carroll, who coached Kiffin at USC and shared a long professional bond with Kiffin’s late father, Monte, urged him to go for it. “He really channeled my dad,” Kiffin said. “He would tell you, ‘Boy, go get it.’”
Now firmly entrenched at LSU, Kiffin isn’t backing away from the magnitude of the move. He knows the expectations, the scrutiny, and the pressure that come with what many consider college football’s most powerful job. And thanks to some blunt advice from the sport’s greatest coach, he’s convinced he made the one decision he wouldn’t regret.
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The post “It’s the Best Job in America”: Lane Kiffin Reveals What Nick Saban Advised Him Before Sealing His Ole Miss to LSU Jump Decision appeared first on The SportsRush.
