Lane Kiffin's opening statement as head coach at LSU

LSU has hired Lane Kiffin as its next head coach, and on Monday afternoon Kiffin was introduced at his introductory press conference. After Verge Ausberry introduced him and he was met with a standing ovation, Kiffin took the stage and talked for over five minutes about his departure, his decision to come to LSU, and more.

Here is everything he said in his opening statement.

“First off, I want to thank my family for all their love and support throughout this process. Layla, Knox, Landry, Preston, my children. My brother Chris is here with his family. Thank you for all the support through this process, which is not an easy one.

I’d also like to thank President Rousse, Board of Supervisors Chair Scott Ballard, Athletic Board Chair John Carmouche, and Julie Cromer. I also had a unique, great call with Governor Landry, and I could feel his passion and energy in that call for the state of Louisiana and for LSU football. Also, the people that reached out during the process, former great LSU players and very powerful LSU alumni.

I’m very honored to be the head coach of LSU. I can sum it up by saying this: this place is different. And having watched this place for a long time, having been on the other sidelines in this stadium, this place is different. And that’s why we’re here. There is a lot of work to do with that, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity to lead one of the elite programs in all of sports. Leaving Ole Miss was extremely difficult, an extremely difficult decision. And in that, we tried every single thing possible to continue coaching through the playoffs and continue to use those practices with the players. In the end, that was their decision.

Let me totally respect that, and I appreciate the time and energy that we put into trying to figure out a plan to do the best thing at the time for those players. The last six years of my life have been the best six years of my life, and I owe that to all the players, all the assistant coaches, and the people of Oxford. It was amazing.

It will forever be a major part of my story. I’m so grateful for those relationships and all those people that I got to meet. But the opportunity at LSU, as I said before, is just different. Someone very close to me reminded me this week, in this decision, that LSU is the best job in football.

When you take the history, tradition, passion, and the great players in the state of Louisiana, no one can argue that. When you’re in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, there is nothing like it. This place is built for championships, with championship expectations. We understand that. But as an elite competitor, that’s exactly what you want, and that’s why we’re here. Over the past few weeks, and especially the last few days, trying to figure out this decision, I really tried to channel my dad. And I thought back to when I spoke at his funeral, and when I spoke it occurred to me as I was writing that speech, I never understood why as a kid we moved so much. And I realized he had moved 17 times. But during that funeral and during that week, the amount of people that reached out to me, who were either at the funeral, wrote letters, wrote notes to me, found my number and texted me—was amazing, from all the different places he went. And it became apparent to me, and I spoke on that: that happened for a reason.

He went to all those different places for reasons. He didn’t stay in one place. He went to all those places so he could impact all those people, and be impacted by all those people in all those different places.

And so as I thought about that, even with the best six years, it became apparent to me what the decision was. My journey has been unique, to say the least, but I believe everything that I’ve been through has prepared me for this moment, at this place, right now. I also believe everything happened exactly how it was supposed to happen, when it was supposed to happen. And that’ll be clear someday, that all of it did. Our program here at LSU will be designed top to bottom to be the number one destination for elite players in all of America. That’s why we’re here.

Our immediate priorities are assembling the best staff in the country and securing top talent. The mission is simple: bringing the best players in the country to LSU, and it starts right here in the state of Louisiana. To win big, as you go through this decision, and you look at different places and all the things involved, to win big, everyone has to be pulling in the same direction.

And I felt through this process that the leadership here at LSU was aligned and all in place to give us that. I know that with the passion of the LSU family and our LSU players, we have everything we need to bring championship football back to LSU. It’s time for LSU to take its place back as the best program in all of college football, and that’s what we’re here to do.

So thanks to everybody for showing up. Thank you for believing in me. Let’s go to work, and Geaux Tigers.”

Stay tuned for more coverage of Kiffin’s opening press conference