Unpacking the Lane Kiffin saga

The Lane Kiffin saga is finally over, and it ended with him boarding a plane to Baton Rouge to become the next head coach at LSU.

As he boarded the jet sent by LSU at the Oxford airport, he was greeted by hundreds of fans, shouting expletives and offering one-fingered salutes at Kiffin.

These fans do have a right to be furious.

Never has there been anything like it. Fans were letting loose all their anger and disappointment at a man who had won 11 of his 12 regular-season games this year and had the Rebels all but guaranteed to make the College Football Playoff.

Of course, never had a coach left a team with a real chance to win a national championship, still, either.

What frustrates me is how Lane Kiffin has portrayed himself as the victim in this situation.

In his resignation letter, Kiffin wrote, “After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU."

Okay, fine. If you want to leave, then leave. Don’t say what you said following that which was, “I was hoping to complete a historic six-season run…, my request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance."

If you wanted to complete the run so badly, you could’ve just stayed. Trying to paint this as an Ole Miss decision as opposed to a Lane Kiffin decision is not only wrong, it’s downright insane.

Kiffin was in his right to leave; nobody will question that, albeit Ole Miss has had more success than LSU in recent years.

If Lane Kiffin wanted to smooth exit, he should’ve just said his dream is to win a national title, and as good as Ole Miss has become, he thinks his chance to do it is so much better at LSU that it was worth giving up on his current players, who formed his best and, really, first nationally relevant team.

At least that would’ve been his honest opinion. After all, this is who Lane Kiffin is.

He’s done it before with Tennessee and now he’s done it with Ole Miss. He’ll coach your team until he gets a better offer with more money, and then he’ll leave.

LSU fans, you can expect the same thing to happen to you. He’s never satisfied, and once that Alabama or Georgia job opens up, he’ll be front and center, ready to sign.

I applaud athletic director Keith Carter for first controlling the damage. He hired Pete Golding to be the new head coach just hours after Kiffin departed.

I also give him props for sending Kiffin on his way after Lane asked to continue coaching.

Keith Carter could’ve allowed Kiffin to have his way for the good of the team itself and to give them the best chance to win a national championship, but he put his foot down, which I know was not easy to do, as he’s essentially giving up all chances of winning a national title.

But to do that, in the situation he was in, takes guts.

So in the end, Kiffin got what he wanted. He left Ole Miss, took three coaches with him, and will now start over in Baton Rouge.

Was it the right decision?

I suppose only time will tell.

However, one thing is certain: Lane Kiffin quit on Oxford.

Sawyer Bogaty is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email him at sgb5468@psu.edu.