Lane Kiffin: The Controversial Charisma in Football

How good is Lane Kiffin for college football, Chris? I mean, he has, it's appointment setting television, his team and him. Yeah, and I mean, in terms of villains, I think we're talking obviously on the field, not stuff that's happened off the field. But with Lane, with everybody, sports need characters. Like, that's ultimately why we watch this stuff, is for the stories. I mean, some people watch it for the X's and O's and properly executing a play here and there, but we want characters. We want people we root for, we want people we root against. And I think Lane Kiffin has always kind of wanted to be a guy people root for, but the things he does just always puts him into the other boat. And then sometimes he leans into it, sometimes he doesn't. I think Steve Spurrier loved being a villain. I think Barry Switzer loved being a villain. I don't know if Lane Kiffin loves it, but I do know he loves to get attention, and this is how he figures it's a good way to get attention, is to do whatever upsets a lot of people. How do you see that game this weekend, LSU-Ole Miss? I mean, you know, don't go to sleep on Ole Miss, and I know you're not. I'm just saying to other people here that that Ole Miss team's got some players on it. Trinidad Chambliss can move the sticks. I saw that against the University of Miami. This kid's a heck of a football player. How do you see this thing playing out here this weekend? Well, I wanna see what LSU team shows up. I mean, they were about perfect in that first game against Clemson, winning 51 to 10, but they were very, very sloppy last week against Louisiana Tech. They had four turnovers, few of them in the red zone. Sam Leavitt had three interceptions. They were only up 10 to seven at halftime, and Louisiana Tech had zero yards of offense at that point, so was that just looking ahead to Ole Miss, or is it a brand new team, week to week, still trying to figure each other out? On the Ole Miss side, very mixed bag in that opener against Louisville. I think offensively, they figured it out. Deuce Alexander's gonna be a very good deep play threat, and Trinidad Chambliss bailed them out a lot. We'll see Kwon Lacey's health. I know he got kind of banged up back in week one, and the environment in Oxford is gonna be insane. Like, this is gonna be one of the biggest, most vitriolic returns for a coach or a player to a stadium that we've ever seen. The way he left Ole Miss before the playoff, he wanted to stay, but it wasn't realistic for him to stay. Leaving that team that could have won a national championship, he left them, and then in the offseason, took some of their players, said some things about the school, and it's a whole big thing. It was a mess when Lane went back to Tennessee a few years ago. Remember, they were throwing stuff on the field, golf balls, it's gonna be a, security's gonna have to be really high on Saturday.