Seeking a Bigger Ox

Lane Kiffin, Loyalty, and the Sell-Out Era of College Football

There’s an old Chinese proverb: “You are seeking an ox while you, yourself, are on it.”

I kept thinking about that as the Lane Kiffin news rolled in. The shockwave that hit the University of Mississippi when the coach who rebuilt Ole Miss with back-to-back 10-win seasons and just delivered the best regular season in school history... decided he’d rather ride a bigger animal somewhere else: LSU.

It’s crazy when you think about it. Ole Miss gave him everything: resources, rope, runway, and a loyal fan base that went from skeptical to all in. But more than that, they gave him something he desperately needed. After flaming out at Oakland, Tennessee, and USC. After getting fired by Nick Saban days before a national championship game. After a divorce and admitting he was drinking too much and barely knew his own kids. Ole Miss threw him a life preserver when he was drowning at Florida Atlantic, a Conference USA program he used to rebuild his shattered reputation.

Ole Miss wasn’t just an ox. It was a strong one. A winning one. Ole Miss gave Kiffin credibility again and he just did the unthinkable. He dismounted the ox and gave them the proverbial middle finger, a school that rescued his career.

For what? A bigger paycheck, brighter lights, the ego-hit of being at a blue-chip program like LSU? The lure of an SEC program that already has trophies in the cabinet instead of one poised to win its first. LSU has tradition and swagger and national titles. Nobody denies that. But Kiffin grew up in Minnesota and played at Fresno State...and Ole Miss took him in and adopted him as their own. It stinks of what Rich Rodriguez did leaving West Virginia for Michigan, or Brian Kelly abandoning Cincinnati for Notre Dame. Trying to latch onto someone else’s legacy instead of building their own. It never really becomes yours. Just ask Rodriguez how that worked out.

Kiffin had job security Ole Miss rarely gives. He had a roster stacked with talent he developed. He had hype, support, and a chance to become the most important coach in the school’s modern history. He could’ve stayed and tried to make Ole Miss the next great SEC power, the kind that forces Alabama and Georgia to circle the date on the calendar.

Maybe that’s why this stings the way it does. Not because a coach left. That happens. But because of the timing. Because of what it says.....

“Ole Miss is not good enough for me”.

He doesn’t want to build an empire. He wants to inherit one.

Maybe the proverb had it wrong. Kiffin wasn’t seeking a bigger ox.

Maybe, he, himself is an ass.

He just showed the world who he really is.

And I know I’m not alone in hoping karma finds him in Baton Rouge.