Ever since Lane Kiffin decided he couldn't win a championship at Ole Miss and departed for supposedly greener pastures at LSU, his former team has done its best to prove him wrong. In the face of the coaching chaos heading into the playoff, the Rebels have run over Tulane, bested Georgia, and now sit pretty in the semis with a winnable game against Miami. The unexpected nature of the run, and the convoluted college football calendar, means LSU's coaching staff, some of whom are still working for the Rebs, is short some major figureheads as it hits the recruiting trail ahead of Kiffin's first season. Though Kiffin was able to add a couple more assistants this week, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and RBs coach Kevin Smith have headed back to Oxford to prepare for the Fiesta Bowl.
Kiffin would probably like people to believe that he is allowing all of this out of the kindness in his heart, but the reality is that the assistants have all the leverage here, freeing them to call their shots by coaching Ole Miss to a potential championship before parachuting away to their new jobs at LSU. New Ole Miss coach Pete Golding is trying not to focus on the uncertainty of who will or won't be coaching alongside him going forward. "I don't know. Do you know if you're going to show up at work tomorrow?" Golding told reporters. "I mean, we don't know. It's grown people making decisions, so I have no idea. We're going to go out there and spot the ball. We got plenty enough people in this building who showed up this morning. We'll be just fine."
The scenario makes for one big mess, the blame for which lies mostly with the NCAA, which needs early signing days and portal openings to fit everyone in at the beginning of the spring semester, but also with Kiffin, the grinning ass at the center of the endless shenanigans. When rumors swirled that he might attend the Sugar Bowl with Louisiana's governor, fans revolted. When he decided to attend an LSU women's basketball game instead, fans still gave him a hard time. You might feel kinda bad for him if he weren't Lane Kiffin, and also if he weren't getting a bonus for every Ole Miss playoff victory.
As for the actual Ole Miss team, their miracle run has been fun for the headaches it has caused for Kiffin and LSU, and also for the heroics of Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy. It also raises the question: Just how many coaches you actually need to win? Are these guys more replaceable than we've been lead to believe? After a year of high-profile firings, they better hope the answer is no.
