There is no such thing as bad publicity for Lane Kiffin

Kiffin has tried to portray his remarks as innocuous, as part of a four-hour sitdown interview with Vanity Fair writer Chris Smith. But it’s naturally raised a lot of questions about what his true motivation or perspective is.

Is he trying to recruit negatively against Ole Miss and damage the school he left behind? Is he aware of the history of Baton Rouge and Louisiana as a whole when it comes to segregation? Is this a real concern of Kiffin’s, or is it all just a show for him so that he can pretend to present himself as a great reconciliatory and civil rights leader? The fact that this conversationis happening against the backdrop of the destruction of the Voting Rights Act and the erasure of Black representation across the South in Congress is an entirely different dimension that the LSU coach probably didn’t plan for.

But maybe that’s the biggest takeaway from all of this. The only plan that Lane Kiffin has is to promote Lane Kiffin.

There is no actual world in which this man can just put his head down and get to work on building the LSU program into the contender that he appeared to have at Ole Miss. How many times has Vanity Fair eversat down with a college football coach for lengthy profile pieces? Especially in the middle of the offseason? And how quickly did Kiffin agree to it because he knew the publicity that it would provide?

This is the same person who tried to getinto the Sugar Bowl broadcast booth as the LSU coach while his former team was playing in the playoff he abandoned. That is not something that any sensible, logical person would even fathom to do. It would be like Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel wanting to do a podcast giving marriage advice.

It’s also the same Lane Kiffin who posts more thirsty social media content than every other coach in college football combined. There’s even debate about the truth behind his dog, which had its own social media account at Ole Miss.

The messy way Kiffin left Oxford was quintessential soap-opera fare. The deadline dramas, the indecision, the demands about the coaching staff, the airport tarmac interviews, the press conferences, it just went on and on. Kiffin couldn’t make a decision and stick with it. He chose to create a spectacle.

And that’s exactly what this Vanity Fair controversy has been. It has been a gift from the content gods, and it’s found a way to get talked about on First Takeamid one of the busiest sports stretches of the year. But in many ways, it’s just yet one more example of Lane being Lane.

But anyone trying to decode what Lane Kiffin truly thinks or believes about Ole Miss, the south, its culture, and racial reconciliation is likely going to reach a dead end very quickly. Because, as he has consistently shown over the years, there are no real guiding principles or foundation on which to stand. There is no 4D chess game that is taking place here.

There is only what suits Lane Kiffin in the moment. If that’s being the best friend of sorority girls or a great unifying force for people of all kinds, it doesn’t really matter. Because this is a one-man show. It always has been, and it always will be.

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