As the ink dries on Lane Kiffin’s contract as LSU’s new head coach, Tiger fans are getting more excited for what’s to come, while the Ole Miss fans stew in disdain.
LSU might be living the high life right now, but nobody can relate to the pain the Rebels are feeling more than the LSU fans of the early 2000s. This might be the best season Ole Miss has had in years, but Kiffin’s career just mimicked everyone’s favorite college football coach: Nick Saban.
When he left LSU to coach for the Miami Dolphins, fans were torn. He announced his departure at Christmas and signed with the Dolphins in January of 2005. This left fans mourning a great coach, but when Saban decided to return to the college game and took the job opening at Alabama, they turned livid.
“Of the 112 or so teams in Div I, he could not have picked a team to do more damage to LSU than Bama, so much for loyalty to the people who paid you well,” user Disposable70 wrote on Reddit. “Not only that, he used the connections he made at LSU to recruit in Louisiana, the man is scum. He ended up in the perfect place for him, the home of Bear Bryant.”
Saban leaving LSU for the Tigers’ biggest rival only intensified the rivalry. Each year, the game versus the Tide was one the fans circled, and once one of the most beloved coaches in purple and gold traded it all in for what he eventually deemed a mistake, it was over for him in the eyes of the fans.
With each season that followed, no LSU fan wanted anything more than to watch the Crimson Tide’s downfall. Now, nearly 21 years since Saban left LSU for the pros, there’s a new SEC traitor in town. This time, the Tigers look to be on the receiving end of the deal.
Kiffin is one of the hottest names in the coaching world right now. What he’s done at Ole Miss by turning that program around has been monumental in the SEC, and now, LSU and Ole Miss’ rivalry will begin to transform more than it has in recent years.
The Rebel fans feel the way Tiger fans did in the early 2000s: betrayed. It comes from deep within years of rivalry, and their anger is only going to intensify.
“Having watched this place for a long time, having been on the other sideline in this stadium, this place is different, and that’s why we’re here,” Kiffin said in his first press conference. “LSU is the best job in football. When you take the history, tradition, passion and the great players in the state of Louisiana … when you’re in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, there is nothing like it.”
But it is all so similar down to the season highs. While at LSU, Saban won a national championship, several conference championships and SEC West titles. Later, he went to Alabama and built the dynasty he is known for.
History isn’t complete yet, as it’s still to be seen how Kiffin stands up at LSU, but if his time at LSU becomes anything like Saban’s at Alabama, the Tigers are in for one amazing, wild journey.
The fans have a lot to be excited for, and the Rebel fans have the other half of a prophecy to fulfill. They say history repeats itself, and it’s being written in front of us each day.
