Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford was already loaded with bad blood. But less than 12 hours before LSU and Ole Miss meet at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Rebels athletic director Keith Carter has added another layer to the story.
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Speaking to ESPN’s Marty Smith, Carter addressed Kiffin’s departure last season, claiming that some things happened behind the scenes that were meant to hurt the Rebels.
“We just want closure. We certainly didn’t love how things transpired, some things happening behind the scenes to try to sabotage our team. So we want to put some closure on this,” said Carter. “The AD needs it. The fans need it. The team needs it. I hate that this has turned into the spectacle that it has. It hurt us, the way that was handled on that side back then.”
Carter brought in Kiffin back in December 2019, right after Ole Miss had gone through three straight losing seasons under Matt Luke. It didn’t take long for Kiffin to turn things around. Over six seasons, he went 55-19, and in 2025 he led the Rebels to 11 regular-season wins, a program record.
“But we’re ready to move forward, to worry about our team. And hopefully Lane will worry about LSU after this weekend,” Carter’s comments further read, as per the X post, read.
Kiffin’s sixth season ended with him abruptly leaving for LSU just days after Ole Miss beat Mississippi State. The timing became even more complicated because the Rebels were preparing for their first College Football Playoff appearance.
Kiffin asked to coach Ole Miss in the CFP after accepting the LSU job but was denied. And he also took several members of his coaching staff to Baton Rouge. Ole Miss went on without him, with Pete Golding taking over as head coach and leading the Rebels to two playoff victories and a national semifinal appearance.
That tension carried into the offseason. According to Ole Miss’ later court filings, former Rebels edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen signed an updated revenue-sharing agreement to remain with the program on January 3, while offensive lineman Devin Harper signed a similar deal on January 6.
Both agreements included early-termination provisions requiring the players to pay predetermined amounts if they left Ole Miss within 90 days. Umanmielen and Harper each transferred to LSU shortly afterward, giving Ole Miss the contractual basis for the breach-of-contract lawsuits it filed against the pair in July. Ole Miss is seeking $550,000 from Umanmielen and $400,000 from Harper, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs. The allegations have not been resolved in court.
The drama continued into the offseason, because former Ole Miss players Princewill Umanmielen and Devin Harper transferred to LSU after signing revenue-sharing agreements to remain with the Rebels. Ole Miss has since filed breach-of-contract lawsuits against both players.
Ole Miss has said it tried to resolve the matter before filing suit. In a statement, the school said it expects athletes and their representatives to honor the terms of their agreements, just as the university says it honors its commitments to players.
The lawsuits are formally against Umanmielen and Harper, not LSU. However, sources previously told ESPN that Ole Miss’ larger objective is to require LSU to account for the combined $950,000 in alleged buyout obligations under its revenue-sharing cap, rather than simply recover the money from the two former Rebels. LSU is not a defendant in either case and has maintained it was not a party to the players’ Ole Miss agreements. The claims remain unresolved.
Now, Kiffin is back in Oxford less than 10 months after leaving. Carter admitted he doesn’t know how he will react when he sees his former coach on the opposite sideline, but said his focus is on making sure Ole Miss has a safe game-day experience.
“I will let each person decide how they want to react to Lane being on the sidelines,” Carter said to the Daily Journal. “What I know is that we’re going to do everything we can from an administrative standpoint to make sure we have an incredible game day.”
There is plenty at stake beyond the reunion. No. 8 Ole Miss and No. 7 LSU both enter Saturday night at 2-0, with national ambitions and a massive SEC game in front of them.
The last time the teams played as AP top-10 ranked was in 1962 when Ole Miss emerged victorious 15-7.
Kiffin has told his LSU players to ignore the noise surrounding his return. The Tigers will instead have to deal with an Ole Miss offense that has scored more than 40 points in each of its first two games.
Still, with Carter now publicly saying the way Kiffin left “hurt” Ole Miss, the attention surrounding his return is unlikely to disappear before kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET.