Lane Kiffin's profile in Vanity Fair reveals controversial statements and questionable claims about his time at Ole Miss. The article highlights Kiffin's self-serving narrative and inaccuracies regarding the university's history with racism.
Key points
Lane Kiffin's Vanity Fair profile includes disputed claims.
Kiffin made controversial statements about Ole Miss's history.
The article highlights inaccuracies in Kiffin's narrative.
Ole Miss has banned the Confederate flag for 30 years.
Mentioned in this story
Lane KiffinOle MissVanity FairLSU Tigers
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - DECEMBER 19: Head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels reacts to a call during a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on December 19, 2020 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) | Getty Images
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - DECEMBER 19: Head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels reacts to a call during a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on December 19, 2020 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) | Getty Images
When considering oneâs thoughts about the former Ole Miss coach adding magazine writer to his expert coaching and Instagram/Snapchat direct message skillsets, you have to remember that Pete Golding, who has been a head coach for three games, has two more career playoff wins than he does.
Unless youâve been logged off or removed from any grid, youâve likely read quotes from The Lane Kiffin Story Hour in *Vanity Fair*. Whether you read the whole thing is up to you, but it can be summarized with the words of *Simpsonsâ* legend Ralph Wiggum:
Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies, and I saw one of the babies, and the baby looked at me!
I wonât go through the profile line by line because we have better things to do, but letâs look at a few details Kiffin wrote and *Vanity Fair* writer Chris Smith copied and pasted into the final draft.
Here is Lane Kiffin when he âlooked like a fugitiveâ after crawling to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I canât even imagine, or maybe I just donât want to. Five hundred yardsâŠthatâs the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.
No word if he, under the name Randall Stephens, also visited nearly a dozen banks in the Oxford area that morning to withdraw the wardenâs money before he headed to Baton Rouge.
Here is Lane Kiffin being âfollowed down a country highway by an angry mob, which screamed cussesâŠâ:
ANGRY MOB. CHASING. RUN OFF THE ROAD. CUSSES. RICH AND COMPELLING.
Sounds great except for one small detail no one at *Vanity Fair* bothered to check because they ainât here to play fact-check. They cried, âGive us the deets, daddy Lane!â
According to the Mississippi Highway Patrol, who escorted Kiffin on the UNPAVED COUNTRY HIGHWAY IN BUMPKINVILLE, MISSISSIPPI, the . He made it up because, and this may be shocking to some, heâs a self-serving asshole who always claims to be the victim and never the root of his own problems.
For the record, those stories are in the first two paragraphs of Lane Kiffinâs Lane Kiffin profile. And the real tell Chris Smith copied and pasted what Kiffin wrote is a phrase in the last sentence of the second paragraph:
ââŠfleeing to a regional airport for a private flight out of dodgeâŠâ
Look, Kiffin is a great football coach, but heâs not a master of language. The idiom is âget out of Dodge,â which is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas and its insanity in the 1870s. And again, an editor or fact-checker couldâve corrected that, but thatâs not part of the show.
After the first two paragraphs, the profile slogs through Kiffinâs story and the general state of college football. Itâs probably new information to those who donât follow the sport yet are reading a Lane Kiffin profile (?), but itâs not anything new to Ole Miss or college football fans.
Near the end though, Kiffin writes about Ole Missâ âstruggle to to distance itself from symbols like the Confederate flag, Colonel Rebel, and the nickname âOle Missâ itself,â and how that affected recruiting. In fact, here is Lane Kiffin, according to Lane Kiffin, fighting the racists and segregationists in Oxford (*language warning)*:
A simple fact-check couldâve noted that the Confederate flag has effectively been banned from Ole Miss games for 30 years (still not ideal!), Colonel Reb got the boot in 23 years ago, and Kiffin never said a word about any of this as head coach in Oxford. Ole Miss doesnât âstruggleâ with any of it, but they deal with it in recruiting because other schools (like Kiffin at LSU) lie about it to recruits.
To be fair, Ole Miss opened the door to negative recruiting due to continued public racist horseshit when all the other racist schools and fans (not just in the South!) decided to stop doing very loud racism.
Itâs important to note Kiffinâs aforementioned silence in Oxford because Tommy Tuberville, former Ole Miss coach and , brought up the Confederate flag and related imagery repeatedly when he was in Oxford. He used his power and influence to get rid of the flag because he knew it was a problem in recruiting.
Thatâs a long way of once again saying Kiffin is a self-serving asshole who will do or say anything to hurt the school that wouldnât let him coach the playoff and he now competes against.
Obviously, this latest (and not final!) round of Mad Adult Diaper-Filling Babyâą adds fuel to the scene on September 19th when LSU plays at Ole Miss. My hope is Ole Miss fans refrain from giving Kiffin his oxygen, which is letting him claim to be a victim, and instead we lean into the PETTINESS.
For example, letâs consider the pre-game âAre You Ready/Hotty Toddyâ celebrity on the jumbotron. Perhaps a former young lady friend of Kiffinâs appears on the screen minutes before kickoff and says:
âHey there, Ole Miss fans. Do I spy an old dusty bitch down there on the visiting sideline? Unlike the court order that wouldnât let him in my house, SEC rules allow him to be in our house for this game. So Iâve got one question for youâŠâ
Way more fun than doing some Tennessee bullshit and throwing things at him.
Q&A
What controversial claims did Lane Kiffin make in his Vanity Fair profile?
Lane Kiffin claimed to have been chased by an angry mob and discussed Ole Miss's struggles with its racist symbols, both of which have been disputed.
How has Ole Miss addressed its history with the Confederate flag and Colonel Rebel?
Ole Miss has effectively banned the Confederate flag from games for 30 years and removed Colonel Rebel 23 years ago, contrary to Kiffin's portrayal of ongoing struggles.
What inaccuracies were found in Lane Kiffin's statements about his experiences?
Kiffin's narrative included fabricated events, such as the mob chase, and misused idioms, indicating a lack of fact-checking in the profile.
How does Lane Kiffin's portrayal affect his reputation as a coach?
Kiffin's self-serving narrative and inaccuracies may damage his credibility and reputation among fans and within the college football community.
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