After abruptly leaving the Ole Miss Rebels in the midst of their College Football Playoff run last year, new LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin certainly did not get a warm welcome from the Ole Miss crowd when he led LSU against the Rebels on Saturday night. But it sounds like the homecoming impacted him more than he expected.
While Kiffin tried to downplay the game in the days leading up to his return to Ole Miss, he admitted after the game that the return was “really emotional,” adding that he is “a human too.”
Kiffin’s Homecoming
Kiffin spent six seasons leading Ole Miss and helped guide the Rebels to their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance last year. However, Kiffin didn’t actually coach the Rebels through their CFP run.
Instead of leading Ole Miss through the College Football Playoff, Kiffin abruptly left the program to become the next head coach of LSU, taking several key assistants and eventually several key on-field contributors with him.
Obviously, Kiffin’s abrupt departure left a sour taste in the mouths of Ole Miss fans, making Saturday’s matchup between Ole Miss and LSU in Oxford so highly anticipated.
‘I’m human too’
Needless to say, Kiffin did not get a warm reception when he returned to Ole Miss on the opposing sideline on Saturday night. After the game, which LSU lost by a score of 32-24, Kiffin had some candid comments about how the whole situation impacted him.
During his postgame press conference, Kiffin was asked if he was happy that the game was over and whether or not the outcome might bring some closure to the whole situation.
“I’m sure I’ll be criticized for saying that, but yeah, I am,” Kiffin said. “I was thinking that all week, especially today, and I would have said that in a win or a loss. You know, that was really emotional driving in on the buses for a lot of reasons. And I’m not saying this because I would have said this anyway since you asked. It was just really a lot of emotions of gratefulness for this place and for the six years. It went well beyond football.”
Kiffin was then asked about how he felt returning to Ole Miss after his abrupt departure last year, and he openly admitted that it was “probably not what I would have thought.”
“There’s a lot of stuff [in] six years here, and a lot of things and a lot of life-changing experiences and a lot of really good people that helped me through some really hard times,” Kiffin said via ESPN. “I just thought I would probably be more in, like, the competitive mode and just kind of embrace it. I don’t know. Sometimes you can’t predict your emotions.
“I know that sometimes I don’t act like it, but I’m a human too, you know.”
That said, he did offer a little subtle shot at Ole Miss when he was asked about the crowd and overall environment of the game.
“You see it all the time on the bus,” Kiffin said. “It’s how you walk in. It’s a buildup. The stadium was full an hour early. So I guess I had to leave to get them to do that.
“So you’re welcome.”
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