Football fans love a good family roast, and the Kiffin clan doesn’t hold back. Lane Kiffin’s son, Knox Kiffin, had already hinted that he wasn’t keen on playing under his father at LSU. But this time, in an interview with Chessa Bouce, the 14-year-old went a step further, delivering a sharp jab at his father’s time as a college player.

“Yeah, he wasn’t good, (Lane Kiffin) wasn’t very good at all,” Knox told Louisiana First. “I’m definitely trying to be better than him. He was a third-string (player), so I don’t want to do that. I want to be as good as I can.”

To be fair, Knox is completely right about the history. Lane Kiffin may be a mastermind on the sidelines, but from 1994 to 1996, the now-LSU head coach was a quarterback for Fresno State under head coach Jim Sweeney. He spent those 3 seasons buried at the bottom of the depth chart. Kiffin never played a snap in his life, let alone scoring a meaningful touchdown.

According to NFL QB David Carr, who went on to become Fresno State’s first-round pick, Lane actually would watch him from the sidelines while Carr took the reps he needed. At one point, he slid down to fifth on the depth chart on that Bulldogs team, which was far down on the list with a room loaded with future pros.

During one of their full-pads practices, Kiffin showed up in just a T-shirt and shorts. When his coach asked what he was doing, Kiffin boldly pointed out that he wasn’t getting any practice reps, so why bother putting it on?

That didn’t sit well with his offensive coordinator, Jeff Tedford, who’d kick him off the field. Realizing that he wasn’t going to make it as a player, the fifth-year senior traded his cleats for a whistle, becoming a student assistant coach. Kiffin returned 30 minutes later in a polo shirt as the team’s newest student assistant coach.

That single choice changed the trajectory of college football forever, launching a 25-plus-year illustrious coaching career for Lane Kiffin. His coaching career took him all the way to the NFL with the Oakland Raiders and major college programs like USC, Alabama, and Ole Miss, proving you don’t need to be a superstar athlete to be an elite head coach.

Safe to bet, that’s not a career map Knox is planning to pursue. The 6’2 and class of 2028 QB wants a very different football story. His main goal is to be way better than his dad ever was on the field. He is using his dad’s old bench-warming days as pure motivation to secure a starting spot and see how far his own arm talent can take him.

The young quarterback is already backing up his talk at University Lab High in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is currently rated as a 3-star prospect and ranked among the top 55 quarterback recruits in the country for the 2028 cycle.

Interestingly, Knox has already picked up 9 Division I scholarship offers from big-time schools like SMU, Washington, Cal, and Missouri. Despite his dad’s coaching footprint, Knox wants to pave his own path rather than follow in his father’s footsteps.

The father-son duo is not in the cards

Lane’s son, Knox Kiffin, has made it clear that he aims to carve his own legacy, but not under his father’s shadow. “Maybe before, but not now. Just because I’m here, I don’t have any aspirations to play for them,” the 14-year-old said.

“I want to kind of do my own thing. Kind of branch out, not like just get my own college experience and not kind of be behind my dad’s footsteps, or like just being able to do my own thing.”

Knox claims that even though he has visited LSU and attended some of their games, he does not want to go there anymore. Instead, he talked about his dream school, revealing that Florida and Oregon have always been the two schools he liked the most for as long as he can remember.

Right now, neither Florida nor Oregon has offered him a spot in their programs yet. But if Knox Kiffin can put on impressive performances in his junior year at U-High, those offers could still come in. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.