The Ole Miss community’s opinion of Lane Kiffin has totally changed ever since he left Oxford for Baton Rouge. It was already bad that he didn’t coach the Rebels in the playoffs. The LSU head coach’s recent comments about his former program’s uncomfortable past have only added fuel to the fire. And as he faces criticism for finding new excuses for his decision, former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron has defended Lane Kiffin.

“Yeah, it was there, no question,” former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron told WWL’s Mike Detillier. “I mean, they had a history there of, you know, racism and Colonel Reb, but you know what, when we got there, the kids that we had were treated good and they had success, but we did face it in recruiting, and they still have that stigma, but look, they overcame it. They got some great players. They’ve had success, graduated, and went to the NFL.”

Ed Orgeron was the Tigers’ head coach from 2016 to 2021, leading the team to the 2019 national title. But before that LSU stint, he was Ole Miss’s head coach from 2005 to 2007 and had firsthand experience with the same situations Lane Kiffin discussed. During a four-hour-long interview with Vanity Fair, Kiffin addressed the differences between LSU and Ole Miss.

“Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,” Kiffin said in the interview. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation.’ And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.”

Ole Miss does have a well-documented racial history. The program came under a national spotlight in 1962 after the riots surrounding the University’s integration, when James Meredith became the first Black student to enroll. Additionally, Confederate Battle flags were a common sight at games and tailgates until 2015, despite then-Chancellor Robert Khayat banning them in 1997.

The program’s on-field mascot, Colonel Reb, also had racial overtones and resembled a plantation owner. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that the parents had concerns about safety in Oxford. At the same time, the university has also taken tangible steps to improve its image over the past two decades, forgoing its mascot and adopting a shark mascot instead. But Orgeron raises an important point.

“I think that stigma is always going to stay with them,” the former Ole Miss head coach said. “Just like other schools have a stigma, but that is definitely there at Ole Miss.”

For now, though, those concerns aren’t showing, as the program has already roped in 9 commits for the 2027 class, and 67% of those are from outside the state.

Despite the ‘stigma’ surrounding Ole Miss’s past, Lane Kiffin still outrecruited top schools and churned out consistent results over the years. Just last year, he led the Rebels to a 19th-ranked recruiting class, which had 9 blue-chip commits among 23 total recruits. In 2021, the class ranked 17th, and the program consistently compiled top-20 classes. Or is it that Ed Orgeron’s support for the LSU head coach’s comments stems from the duo’s past connection?

Ed Orgeron and Lane Kiffin share a 20-year-old close bond

Ed Orgeron and Lane Kiffin have a long-standing personal friendship that spans over 20 years. They first connected on Pete Carroll’s USC staff in the early 2000s, when Kiffin was a young tight-end coach and Orgeron coached the D-line. From then on, the bond evolved, and the duo collaborated on several occasions.

When Kiffin became Tennessee’s head coach in 2009, Orgeron worked under the former, coaching the D-line. Thereafter, when Kiffin ditched Tennessee just after a year and accepted the USC job, he brought Orgeron back to his staff, where he served as the program’s DC. Kiffin’s relationship with Orgeron was so intense that he even recommended Orgeron for the USC head coaching job.

“Lane treated me with the utmost respect. I was like head coach No. 2 on the staff… He’s always asked me to go with him,” Orgeron said about Kiffin. “He and I were tight at USC. He was a young coach, but man, a great, great recruiter, great evaluator. Had a bright future ahead. I went to work with his daddy, Monte Kiffin. That’s the reason I went to Tennessee.”

Even last year, when Kiffin arrived at LSU, he called Ed Orgeron while driving by Tiger Stadium. The former LSU head coach responded in kind, assuring him that he was at “the best place in America.” That’s how the dynamic has always been between Lane and Orgeron.

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