OXFORD, ma’am. — Lane Kiffin is confident that she did the right thing by turning down an offer from golden brown stay Miss Olesigned a long-term contract extension at the end of November.
But in an interview with ESPN on Friday, Kiffin said he felt at odds with the criticism he received from some fans about the way he handled the process, which took weeks to resolve. .
“We screw up all the time,” he said. “But when you think you’re doing the right thing and then you really get criticized for it – especially by your own people – then I struggle with that because I feel like I’ve been through it. a decision-making process that you have to go through.
“I mean, you have to decide. It’s your life and your family’s life.”
It was clear that from the moment Auburn fired Bryan Harsin on October 31, Kiffin would be a prime target in the search for the Tigers.
But Kiffin took the time to consider the opportunity. And during that time, he hasn’t made any public statements that he’s not going anywhere – a tactic he’s found counterproductive with football coaches in the past, who finally broke their word.
Until the night before the final game of the season against the opponent Mississippi State that Kiffin informed the team he was on.
“I felt that it would be very distracting to make this important statement 24 hours before the game and talk about me,” Kiffin said. “So I think I did the right thing to say, ‘Okay, I’ll avoid doing this about me, you guys go ahead and play. But you know, you guys don’t have to sit here and worry about it. that your coach is leaving tomorrow after the game or something. I’ll stay, I just haven’t made it public yet.’
“I told them that was obviously the most important thing, and because we lost we didn’t do it the right way. If we won, nobody would care.”
Ole Miss lost at home 24-22, ending the regular season with a three-game unbeaten streak.
“Sometimes the right thing to do doesn’t always go in the right direction,” says Kiffin.
But, speaking to ESPN in the middle of spring practice, Kiffin said he understands fans’ feelings for the situation and believes the focus should be on what’s most important – that he’s actually staying .
“Which over time a lot of people haven’t been able to do when they were in similar situations, including that particular job, the job at Auburn,” Kiffin points out.
Former Ole Miss coach Tommy Tuberville famously said they would have to carry him out of Oxford in a pine box before he left to sign a new contract at Auburn.
Ten years ago, Kiffin said he could have seen the situation in black and white and jumped at the chance to join a more proven show. He said he’d done his research, which found that four of Auburn’s previous coaches before Harsin all had teams that finished in either 1st or 2nd place in the last poll of the team. Associated Press. The last time Ole Miss did that was in 1960.
But Kiffin said he has matured over the past decade and there are other factors to take into account, including personal considerations such as his daughter, who plans to attend Ole Miss after graduating from high school.
Furthermore, he said he is confident in the direction of the show, which has been 18-8 for the past two seasons and has become a top destination for transfers.
Once again, Kiffin has attracted top talent from across the country through the portal this season, most notably bolstering the midfield with the addition of the former All-Big 12 midfielder. Spencer Sanders from Oklahoma State and former five-star QB prospect Walker Howard from LSU.
