Lane Kiffin, one of the brightest minds in college football, is the new head coach of the LSU Tigers. The 50-year-old has accepted LSU’s reported offer of a seven-year contract worth more than $90 million. Tiger Rag Editor Glen Guilbeau calls it a fantastic hire.
“Because he was the hottest coach available, including the school he was at, and then Florida entered the picture. So that says a lot that LSU can land somebody like that,” Guilbeau said.
The hiring of Kiffin caps off a dramatic month for LSU football. It started with the firing of Brian Kelly and the dismissal of athletics director Scott Woodward. It looked like LSU would have a hard time attracting a big-time coach, especially when it appeared Governor Landry had a hand in Woodward’s firing. But Guilbeau says new AD Verge Ausberry was confident he could hire the best coach in college football.
New LSU football head coach LANE KIFFIN (left) and LSU Athletics Director VERGE AUSBERRY (photo courtesy of LSU Athletics)
“Verge said, ‘Hey, football coaches just want to coach football. There’s no politics involved if you win.’ So Lane obviously thinks he’s going to win, and is not going to be concerned with politics,” Guilbeau noted.
Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss is messy. He’s leaving a program that went 11-1 and will play in the College Football playoff later this month. Kiffin is also taking several assistants with him to Baton Rouge. In a statement, the new LSU head coach says he wanted to coach the Rebels in the playoffs, but his request was denied by Ole Miss AD Keith Carter. Here’s Guilbeau’s take:
“If you’re a player from Ole Miss for Lane Kiffin, you feel like he really fought to coach you. Because that’s what all this delay was about. He wanted to continue coaching these Ole Miss players. So they can’t be too mad at him,” Guilbeau explained.
