Brycen Sanders, Suntarine Perkins refute Lane Kiffin claim team wanted him to coach College Football Playoffs

Lane Kiffin‘s departure from Ole Miss to take the LSU job was not the cleanest. And it’s looking messier by the moment, as at least one current player speaks out against a prevailing narrative.

That narrative being that the team asked Kiffin to keep coaching the Rebels in the College Football Playoff. Apparently that was not a consensus feeling in the building. Not even close.

“‘Despite the team asking me to keep coaching,'” wrote offensive lineman Brycen Sanders on Twitter. “I think everyone that was in that room would disagree.”

Sanders made that comment while quote-tweeting Lane Kiffin’s departure message, which was posted to Twitter on Sunday afternoon. In that statement, Kiffin claimed that the players had wanted him to continue coaching in the postseason but were denied that request by athletics director Keith Carter.

“I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year’s team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team’s incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everything into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern,” Kiffin wrote.

“My request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”

Further disputes of that Lane Kiffin narrative arrived on Wednesday evening. Added defensive star Suntarine Perkins, a little after Sanders:

“That was not the message you said in the meeting room,” Perkins wrote. “Everybody that was in there can vouch on this.”

Regardless, Ole Miss will move forward with new coach Pete Golding in charge. And other details have since fallen into place, like the fact that offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. will be allowed to coach the team into the playoffs.

Lane Kiffin’s move to LSU was a historic one. It’s not often a coach leaves a program for one of its rivals, particularly when the kind of money offered makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport.

By all accounts, Ole Miss offered a competitive package to keep Kiffin. But he is headed out, and Ole Miss players seem ready to move on without him.