Don't freak out: Lane Kiffin didn't start a trend of coaches bailing on College Football Playoff-bound teams

This isn’t a trend, and in this particular case it’s not the calendar’s fault.

Let’s get that straight before everyone panics.

Lane Kiffin is one of one. So if you’re worried that coaches will start annually bailing on their College Football Playoff-bound power conference teams to take over conference rivals, don’t. What happened at Ole Miss and LSU on Sunday was a Lane Kiffin production, and most other coaches either don’t desire to or aren’t capable of creating that level of spectacle.

As the mushrooming explosion that was Kiffin’s move from Ole Miss to LSU grew ever more complicated last week, a wise person who has held jobs in the real world and in the fantasyland that is college football put it in perspective.

“When you give someone everything,” said the person, who once lived inside a big-time college football machine before venturing back to normal life, “they expect everything.” 

Ole Miss had given Lane Kiffin everything. The school had ceded total control. Kiffin could run the program exactly as he saw fit, which may sound typical but is in fact quite unusual in the highly politicized zone where public higher education meets professional sports. The byproduct of this was that Kiffin probably assumed the world would continue to bend to his will no matter what action he took.

Kiffin seemed positively gobsmacked that he met resistance when he informed Ole Miss that he’d like to leave for one of the program’s most bitter rivals, but he’d also like to coach the Rebels through the College Football Playoff. Imagine walking into your boss’s office and saying this:

“I quit. I’m going to start working for one of our main competitors ASAP. But hey, I’m also going to split time and work here on this ultra-critical project for another month. See you in the office later this week.”

In many industries, an employee would be handed a box to collect their belongings and get escorted out by security after making a statement like that. Yet Kiffin seemed surprised that Carter and Ole Miss chancellor Glenn Boyce considered Kiffin continuing to coach the Rebels to be a non-starter. 

Kiffin’s response wouldn’t surprise anyone who understood the level of control Kiffin had over the program. Ole Miss had incredible alignment during Kiffin’s tenure, and that’s part of the reason he was so successful there. Carter and collective leader Walker Jones kept everything moving behind the scenes, and then they let Kiffin cook. The results were excellent.

What Kiffin didn’t understand was that he wasn’t granted that level of control just because he was Lane Kiffin. He was given it because Boyce, Carter and Jones wanted Ole Miss to win. So when Kiffin stopped being loyal to Ole Miss, his privileges were immediately revoked. This is a concept every rank-and-file employee would understand. But if you’re a rock star whose every request has been granted for years, you will express shock when you’re handed a bowl that contains something other than the green M&Ms for which you asked.

Boyce and Carter acted in the best interests of Ole Miss, as is their duty. There will be at least one coach in the CFP who is bound for a new school but coaching at his old school. North Texas plays Tulane on Friday for the American championship. North Texas coach Eric Morris is headed to Oklahoma State. Tulane coach Jon Sumrall is headed to Florida. In both cases, old school and new school have agreed they can handle the transition by allowing those coaches to stay with their teams a little longer.

That wasn’t tenable at Ole Miss. And if North Texas or Tulane officials had decided Morris or Sumrall should leave immediately, that also would have been their right. But the potential for damage is far less likely when the coach is leaving for a school in another conference that recruits from an entirely different pond.

That’s why this won’t be a trend. Most coaches in position to lead a Big Ten or SEC team to the CFP are going to stay at that school. (See Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri and Clark Lea at Vanderbilt.) Most job moves will be less parallel than Kiffin’s. But yes, if Auburn’s coach ever takes the Alabama job or Oregon’s coach ever takes the Michigan job on the eve of a CFP appearance, that person probably is going to have to miss the playoff.

Let’s also not blame the calendar for Kiffin’s choice. He could have chosen to stay at Ole Miss. The money would have been similar. The chance to make the CFP obviously is comparable, because Ole Miss is in it now and LSU is not. 

Nick Saban is the man who stumped this week for Kiffin to be allowed to keep coaching Ole Miss. Saban also is the coach who fired then-Alabama offensive coordinator Kiffin between the Peach Bowl and national title game because Kiffin couldn’t balance his OC duties with his new gig as Florida Atlantic’s head coach. (Jeremy Pruitt pulled off a similar double without getting fired a year later. Another reminder that Kiffin is one of one.) Saban blamed the college football calendar in this case and not Kiffin.

Does the calendar need fixing? Probably. But the roots of the calendar issue lie in something that won’t be changed because of football. The natural break around Christmas created the semester system in American higher education, and the business of college dwarfs the business of college athletics. Football is a fall sport, so naturally, there will be an annual period of moves between the fall and spring semesters. It’s when everyone wants to move — coaches and players.

There are moves that could be made to the college football calendar. I wrote about it a year ago. Move the transfer portal window to the spring, eliminate spring football and start NFL-style organized team activities in late May. Having only a February signing period for high-schoolers would help as well.

Do you know who doesn’t want this? Coaches. Most do not want what I described in that column last year. Most want to have their rosters set in January. They want players in their strength program starting in January. They’re the ones fighting the common-sense changes. So don’t listen when they cry that the calendar is the cause of all that ails the sport. 

If coaches want to change jobs, that’s absolutely their right. But they need to understand that if they’re going to keep fighting the changes that might make the calendar more manageable, they risk being viewed as villains when they take new jobs. 

Will Kiffin’s reputation recover from this? Not with everyone, but probably with most of us. 

Even Tennessee fans — who went nuclear when Kiffin left their team for USC after the 2009 season — chuckled along as they read Kiffin’s tweets these past few years. They came around on Kiffin as college football’s funniest troll. But they also probably weren’t surprised at what they watched this weekend. Make all the documentaries you want about how much you’ve changed. Actions always speak louder than propaganda.

In time, most of us will be laughing at Kiffin again when he cracks jokes about joining his daughter’s boyfriend’s team or when he needles former co-workers before his Tigers play their teams. Kiffin made the best decision for Kiffin, and none of us should have been shocked in the least because that’s what he’s always done.

But there is only one Lane Kiffin.

So don’t expect copycats.