After an 11-1 regular season, Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin left for LSU.

This alone, rightfully, set Ole Miss fans ablaze. He led the team to the best season in program history, and to leave before the teams first playoff game to go coach in the same conference as your old team left supporters feeling betrayed. The Ole Miss faithful showed this betrayal by booing him as he boarded the plane to Baton Rouge, and by saying that they didn’t need him to win a National Championship.

When Lane Kiffin wanted his old coaches from Oxford to join him in his new home, however, Rebel fans and players alike critiqued Kiffin to the fullest.

Trying to take away coaches from a team currently in the national championship is venturing into very murky waters. Kiffin wants his selection of Ole Miss coaches in Baton Rouge to help them recruit in the transfer portal. After Ole Miss’ upset win against Georgia, Kiffin threatened to pull his coaches out of Oxford mid playoff run to show recruits what the system at LSU will look like come 2026.

Since the transfer portal closes on January 16th, Kiffin was worried about Ole Miss having the possibility of going to the National Championship on January 19th, three days after the portal closes. Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator, running backs coach, tight ends coach, and wide receiver coach were all pulled to LSU to help Kiffin recruit, being unavailable for the semifinal matchup against Miami.

Ole Miss ended up losing 31-27 to the Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl, falling short of their first National Championship appearance in school history. LSU has now landed over 20 players since the transfer portal opened January 2nd. The most notable of these signings were former Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt and Ole Miss’ WR Winston Watkins Jr.