Lane Kiffin leaves Ole Miss on brink of its first College Football Playoff to take LSU job

Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin will take the same job with the LSU Tigers, he announced Sunday, leaving the seventh-ranked team in the nation for its conference rival.

College football’s strangest saga of the season is finally over.

Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin will take the same job with the LSU Tigers, he announced Sunday, leaving the seventh-ranked team in the nation for its conference rival.

“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin wrote in a social media post.

The Tigers job became available after the school fired Brian Kelly in October. Kiffin immediately became the most heavily rumored name to take over, despite the Rebels being in the midst of a playoff run.

Ole Miss reportedly gave Kiffin an ultimatum to make his decision by this weekend, though the coach denied the report. One reason for the delay in Kiffin’s decision was his desire to coach the Rebels through the end of the season.