Earlier this week, the Mississippi State Bulldogs fired head coach Zach Arnett before he even got to complete a full season in Starkville. It was a move that even surprised Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin.
During his press conference this week, Lane Kiffin was asked if the move came as a surprise to him, and he did not shy away from admitting that it did indeed catch him off guard.
“Yeah, it does,” Lane Kiffin said according to On3. “I mean, it’s not like it used to be. Used to be you had time to build things and you had years to sign classes and see them develop before people made a decision. So, that’s obviously not what’s going on.”
Arnett was named the team’s interim head coach following the tragic death of head coach Mike Leach. He coached the team during the bowl game last year and through 10 games this season before the team ultimately decided he was no the correct person for the job. But Kiffin seems to think that decision came a little too soon.
“To be let go 10 games into your first season when you got hired late, like Zach, really I don’t know how you do that that fast. I don’t know how the expectation is to judge you that fast about the job that you did. Unfortunately, it’s kind of the thing to fire people fast. To me, it’s kind of the grass is always greener, so you know, it is what it is,” Kiffin said.
Kiffin and Ole Miss will face Mississippi State later this season without Arnett, meaning he never even got to coach against him in the iconic Egg Bowl.
