Auburn head football coach Lane Kiffin.
How does that roll off the tongue?
It almost happened, according to a recent ESPN report, had it not been for Kiffin’s daughter, Landry.
Chris Low reports, “Kiffin was leaning toward taking the Auburn job” back in 2022 had it not been a question his daughter asked him.
“You left me one time for another job when you went to Alabama, and now I’m here with you and you’re going to do it again?” she asked, per the report.
Kiffin’s oldest daughter left Los Angeles prior to her senior year of high school to be with her dad. Now at Ole Miss, she didn’t want him to leave. In addition, Low reports Landry Kiffin and her friends made a musical slideshow of them at Ole Miss to persuade him to stay.
It’s just a small nugget in a lengthy piece illustrating the Ole Miss coach’s transformation - on and off the field - as the Rebels prepare for a season with lofty expectations.
More recently has come about Kiffin’s coaching career. Just in the past week, “The Price: What It Takes to Win In College Football’s Era of Chaos” was released, and a chapter dedicated to sports agent Jimmy Sexton highlighted the Nick Saban/Kiffin relationship. Sexton’s role in their union was instrumental. The book, in fact, shares just how furious Saban was at times with Kiffin and how he blamed Sexton.
Saban, of course, denied making the comment during an ESPN broadcast over the weekend.
In November of 2022, Ole Miss and Kiffin agreed to an extension for $9 million a year not long after Auburn hired Hugh Freeze and after a weeks-long public flirtation with Auburn. Kiffin, the former Alabama offensive coordinator, got another extension in December - for the third year in a row.
