Several Ole Miss players have pushed back on Lane Kiffin’s parting claims that the players asked him to stay to coach them through the College Football Playoff, adding more potential controversy to an already messy split on his way to taking the head coaching job at LSU.
In his announcement on social media that he would be accepting the LSU gig, he claimed that his request to coach Ole Miss through the rest of the season was denied by the Ole Miss athletic director, Keith Carter, “despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them.”
Nevertheless, several current Ole Miss players disputed that in posts on social media.
It was sophomore offensive lineman Brycen Sanders who first posted on X, calling out Kiffin’s claim.
“‘Despite the team asking me to keep coaching’. I think everyone that was in that room would disagree,” He wrote while quoting Kiffin’s original announcement.
Fellow offensive lineman Paris Wilkins jumped in, sharing Sanders’ post while captioning his own: “Fax this was not said from anyone!”
Offensive tackle Jayden Williams also added to the comments.
“Let em’ know,” the senior wrote, “Every single person!”
Junior linebacker Suntarine Perkins took it a step further when he challenged Kiffin’s version of events that the departed football coach was trying to get across in his announcement on Sunday.
“That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this,” Perkins wrote on X, which drew a shocked eyes reaction from the Secretary of State of Mississippi, Michael Watson.
Kiffin has spent the days since he announced his decision reminding everyone whenever he can that it was Ole Miss’ decision not to let him coach through the end of the season, but it’s beginning to seem like there’s more to the story, whether the players actually wanted that, as he claimed.
It’s not clear when the next time Ole Miss players will be in front of reporters, but the topic is sure to come up.
During interviews with ESPN and at his introductory press conference, Kiffin expressed a hope that after some time, Ole Miss fans will be able to have an appreciation for his time coaching the program.
Fans waited at the airport in Oxford to jeer, flip him off and heckle him as he and his entourage boarded a pair of planes bound for Baton Rouge.
And news that Kiffin may not have been entirely accurate with how he portrayed Ole Miss players’ feelings about him staying to coach is not going to endear him to anyone in Mississippi.
Kiffin has a history of burning bridges at previous coaching stops, and the drawn-out exit at Ole Miss may only add to that list.
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