Lane Kiffin has been named head coach of the Ole Miss football program, athletic director Keith Carter announced via a statement released on Saturday. He will be formally introduced in a press conference on Monday.
OFFICIAL | @Lane_Kiffin named head football coach at Ole Miss
📰 https://t.co/ovLKjexMaq
🎟 https://t.co/6yjQRa0OG3 pic.twitter.com/gWo4oipxj7— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) December 7, 2019
“I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Coach Kiffin to the Ole Miss family,” Carter said in the statement. “As we entered this process, we were looking for energy, innovativeness and a program builder who could excite our student-athletes and fans. Coach Kiffin checked every box and is a home run for our program. I look forward to locking arms with him to take Ole Miss Football to a championship level.”
The move brings Kiffin back to the SEC, where he previously was the head coach of Tennessee for one season before leaving to take the USC job. While at USC, Kiffin went 28-15 and was fired midway through the 2013 season after a loss to Arizona State. The firing was notable in that then-AD Pat Haden pulled Kiffin off the team plane and made him find another way home.
Kiffin was then the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Alabama under Nick Saban from 2014-2016.
Since 2017, Kiffin has been the head coach at Florida Atlantic, who have gone 26-13 in his three seasons with the program. The Owls won the Conference USA championship on Saturday in a 49-6 win over UAB.
The Rebels have not had a winning season since winning the Sugar Bowl in 2015 and fired Matt Luke on Sunday after going 15-21 in three seasons at the helm.
Kiffin always said he needed to pay his dues at FAU before taking another big-time coaching position, and that’s exactly what he did. Time will tell if the new-and-improved Kiffin will find success in Oxford.
