Cayden Lee: The 'type of aura' Lane Kiffin brings has changed Ole Miss

There is no secret that when Lane Kiffin’s day comes for his appearance at the yearly Southeastern Conference Media Days all eyes and ears are focused directly on the Ole Miss head coach.

Entering his sixth year at the helm of the Rebels — his longest-tenured head coaching job — Kiffin has created something in Oxford that was hard to sustain by his predecessors. Not since maybe the days of Johnny Vaught has Ole Miss been viewed as a legitimate contender for consecutive years.

Kiffin has done that and done so with his personality and presence both on and off the field that has attracted the top talent in the State of Mississippi and the country to want to wear the Red and Blue.

Ole Miss was a College Football Playoffs contender last year, missing out by one game many felt, and is at least in the conversation mid-July before the 2025 season begins.

What is it about Kiffin that changed the direction of the Rebels football program by 180 degrees over the last five seasons?

“If you look at Ole Miss before he got here versus after he got here, I feel like it’s a total change,” Cayden Lee said on Monday. “I remember turning the TV on and looking at old clips of Ole Miss playing and the stadium wasn’t packed.

“Now we’re sold out almost every game. Just being able to see the type — I’ll use this word to make him happy — the type of aura he has bringing fans to the stadium and everything is really big.”

Lee is entering his third season at Ole Miss and the team’s top returning wide receiver. He has had a front row seat to what the Rebels have done the previous two years, stringing two straight 10-plus win seasons together.

Most people only see Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss head coach, from afar via the stands or through the TV screen.

Lee is one of the 100 or so players that see Kiffin when the cameras are off in the sweltering heat of practices and behind closed doors in the locker room.

It is during those times that the real Lane Kiffin emerges, according to Lee.

“If you want to see coach Kiffin in his natural form, you’ll come to practice,” Lee said. “You’ll be listening to Taylor Swift mid-practice and he’ll be having coaches doing receiver drills, falling down and all type of stuff. It’s just a really good environment.”

Kiffin usually has those coaches showdowns to kick off practice, at least during the days media is able to watch, and it does set the tone for the kind of atmosphere expected at Ole Miss.

There are serious stakes involved but at the core it is still a game and fun needs to be had to get through those dog days of August and September practices.

The Ole Miss head coach also brings the levity through his social media platforms. Kiffin’s posts on X (formerly Twitter) usually draw a buzz due to either his playful, or troll-like demeanor, or if he is using it to continue a point he made during a press conference on a newsworthy topic.

Usually it is the former that gets the attention of the Rebel players, like Lee, which provides another glimpse into their coach’s personality.

“You know, if you’re in Oxford, Mississippi, and we’re over summer and it’s raining outside and you just need something to laugh at, you go to coach Kiffin’s page, and you’ll see him on a boat fishing, tagging Coach (Hugh) Freeze and it just gives you a laugh, like, why is he doing that?’ Lee said. “So, to be able to ask him about it later and go, hey, Coach, why did you do this? And he explains it to you, and it’s awesome.”

Kiffin has managed to tap into something during his time at Ole Miss that has taken root in Oxford and turned the Rebels into real players of the SEC year-in-and-year-out.