By Andrew McCartyShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberLane Kiffin left the Ole Miss Rebels in the midst of potential national title run for the LSU Tigers in the hopes of...a national title run.
After weeks of indecision, Kiffin opted to take the LSU job. In response, Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter made it abundantly clear he wouldn't be allowed to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff.
"When you take the history, tradition, passion and the great players in the state of Louisiana, no one can argue that when you're in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, there is nothing like it," Kiffin said in his introductory press conference on Monday. "This place is built for championships with championship expectations – we understand that – but as an elite competitor, that's exactly what you want, and that's why we're here."
While he feels welcomed by those in Baton Rouge, he faced a dangerous road to get there.
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During the press conference, Kiffin claimed he and son, Knox, were nearly run off the road by Ole Miss fans on the way to the airport.
“We spent six years there, and that airport scene," Kiffin said. "Knox and I driving. People trying to run us off the road, man, and the things they said to us, and then we got here (Baton Rouge) and had been here for six minutes and it was, 'We love you, Coach, you are the best ever'...that’s the SEC...They ain’t going to the airport and driving from all over to say all those things, yell those things and try to run you off the road if you were doing bad," he said. "I just look at it as passionate people in the SEC."
Kiffin finished with a 55-19 record at Ole Miss.
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