Lane Kiffin on what drew decision to take LSU job out so long: 'It was just really difficult'

On Sunday, Lane Kiffin finally gave the college football world the answer it had been anxiously awaiting. He is heading to Baton Rouge to become the next coach of LSU.

With that, his six seasons at Ole Miss came to an abrupt end. After turning the Rebels into a likely College Football Playoff team for the first time in program history, he won’t be on the sidelines to coach them through the bracket.

The announcement came after weeks of speculation as to whether Kiffin would stay in Oxford or accept the job at LSU or Florida. Now after reaching his conclusion, the coach opened up to Marty Smith of ESPN about his time at Ole Miss and why this was such a tough decision to make.

“It just was really difficult,” Kiffin said. “This has been a really special place. Six years here. I know that there’s a lot of feelings and emotions around right now. I hope that when they settle down there’s an appreciation about what we were able to do here having the best run that’s ever been done in the history of this school and brought some exciting times. So I’m so appreciative to the people of Oxford and the relationships that I developed here.”

Kiffin arrived in Oxford after plenty of ups and downs throughout the early part of his career as a head coach. After spending a season at Tennessee, the coach infamously bolted for USC in 2010 and spent four years there before being fired in the middle of the 2013 season.

He then took a job as offensive coordinator at Alabama under the legendary Nick Saban, using that to latch on to another head coaching opportunity at Florida Atlantic. After leading the Owls to a pair of 11-win seasons, he got another chance to reinvent himself with Ole Miss.

He’s proven an ability to build a contender in the SEC, leaving Oxford with a 55-19 overall record. Now as he moves on to his next chapterat LSU, Lane Kiffin hopes some day he’ll still be remembered fondly by the Rebels.

“You know, when I spoke at my dad’s funeral, he moved 17 times,” he said. “And I realized when all the people, I got all the letters, calls, people showed up from all those different spots, NC State and all the different spots he coached, and they said he was able to impact them and how much that meant to them.

“So I’ve really strived since that day to really try to impact people and help people through life through my journey. So just prayed a lot and made a family decision. Hopefully get a chance to go impact a whole new set of people.”