Lane Kiffin may be gone from Oxford, but somehow it still feels like his fingerprints are all over Ole Miss football.
Kiffin’s departure for LSU completely changed the SEC landscape. After spending years building Ole Miss into a national contender, he left for another SEC program — and suddenly one of the Rebels’ biggest rivals had the coach responsible for their recent rise.
That’s what makes the situation so fascinating.
Ole Miss isn’t just trying to win without Kiffin. The Rebels are trying to prove the program he built was bigger than the coach himself.
Pete Golding got an early opportunity to prove exactly that when he took over during Ole Miss’ College Football Playoff run last season. Now he has the job full-time, and every major game becomes another referendum on whether Ole Miss can maintain its place among the SEC’s best.
Meanwhile, Kiffin is trying to do the same thing at LSU with even more resources.
That creates a storyline that isn’t going away anytime soon.
Every LSU win will have Ole Miss fans wondering what could have been. Every Ole Miss win will give the Rebels another chance to show they didn’t need Kiffin to remain relevant.
And eventually, these two programs are going to collide.
When Kiffin finally has to stand on the opposite sideline from the program he helped resurrect, it won’t feel like another SEC game.
It’ll feel personal.
Kiffin left Oxford, but Ole Miss still has an opportunity to write the better ending.
