ESPN's Heather Dinich calls out Lane Kiffin for how he handled Ole Miss departure

Much of the debate around Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU is the impact on that decision had by the football calendar from the NCAA. Heather Dinich has called that point out, though, in saying this all comes back to only Kiffin.

Dinich reacted to Kiffin leaving Oxford for Baton Rouge, after he was introduced yesterday evening by the Tigers, while on ‘Get Up’ on Tuesday morning. She spoke a lot about the perceived effect of the calendar on decisions like this, and gave it little credit as it’s just a part of college football and isn’t something that’s expected to be changed again anytime soon.

“College football is not like the NFL, right. You cannot, contract-wise, operate the same way with 10 FBS conferences and commissioners, and the timing that is college football,” said Dinich. “That is unique.”

“The problem is not the calendar, because, at the end of the day, this is a legal issue. You can’t tell people when they can and cannot take jobs. This is an ethical and moral compass issue,” Dinich added later. “The NCAA has already changed the transfer portal window. I don’t sense any interest from leaders to change it again. This is just about the decision-making of these coaches…This is happening all over the place, and it’s a decision that the coaches are making.”

No, says Dinich. She said this comes down to one thing, and it’s decision-making. He made his choice this weekend, and, more importantly, regardless of which program he picked in the end, he could’ve chosen to handle it differently. Instead, Kiffin decided to leave the Rebels, who were in title contention with an appearance ahead in the College Football Playoff, when he did and how he did to take the job with the Tigers.

“Every coach, including Lane Kiffin, preaches the Bo Schembechler line of the team, the team, the team – until it’s about me. And, if it’s not about money, then there’s a different way to handle it,” said Dinich. “It is possible to say, ‘You know what, thank you so much for your interest, LSU and Florida. I’m going to focus on my team, and then we can have these conversations when I’m done. And, if you can’t wait for me to do that, then go ahead and move on, but that’s what I need to do is focus on this’. This happens all the time in jobs across America. So, there’s a different way to handle it.”

“Look at Kalani Sitake and Penn State right now. Our colleague, Pete Thamel, has reported there’s mutual interest between the two. And, you know what Sitake said? I got to focus on the Big 12 Championship,” Dinich added. “So, don’t tell me there’s not another way to handle it.”

This decision was clearly complicated to make for a lot of reasons. However, if it was further complicated than that, Dinich says it wasn’t done so by the calendar in college football, but done so in the end by Kiffin himself.