The airport was where John Talty’s Lane Kiffin project really started to take shape.
Talty wasn’t there to heckle the new LSU coach as he headed to Baton Rouge. He was there to document Kiffin’s exit, first through videos he posted to social media and later in the chapters that became Talty’s new book, Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football's Agent of Chaos. The book hit shelves Tuesday, just days before Kiffin’s return to Oxford, Mississippi, with LSU for Saturday’s Week 3 matchup against Ole Miss at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
“There’s no one else like him,” Talty said.
Kiffin did not take part in the project, but Talty did get two key windows into the coach’s world: a sit-down in May at the SEC’s annual meetings in Destin, Florida, and text messages afterward. Those conversations frame the book as a prologue and epilogue, surrounding the broader arc of Kiffin’s career and public life.
Talty, who covered Alabama football for AL.com while Kiffin was Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator, cast a wide net. He didn’t just focus on the years Kiffin has spent under a spotlight. He also dug into earlier, less familiar chapters, including Kiffin’s time as a quarterback in high school and at Fresno State.
Still, the book is built around what Talty called Kiffin’s “tentpole events.” There was the 2008 episode when Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis labeled him a “professional liar.” There was the 2009 exit that infuriated Tennessee fans when Kiffin left late at night for the head coaching job at Southern Cal, followed by the moment the Trojans fired him at an airport four years later.
Talty also said he found new details surrounding Saban’s decision to fire Kiffin from his playcalling duties at Alabama just days before the 2017 national championship game.
To pull it all together, Talty interviewed about 125 people.
“All that, I think, happened over the last year just made him a more rich story,” Talty said. “I think there's also just not as many of those figures who really move the needle in the sport the way they used to, and I think Lane's certainly one of them.
“He is someone who I think a lot of people have opinions about, and there's that pressure to want to write something that goes beyond what's been done in the past and that hopefully reveals things about him that will allow people to understand him in a better way than what has been done previously.”
Some of the most memorable material centers on Kiffin’s more recent chaos, including the nights he spent roaming Tuscaloosa, Alabama, bars in 2016 and his refusal to back away from coaching Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff last season after he had already accepted the LSU job.
But Talty said the most revealing parts of the book come from Kiffin’s teenage years. He writes about a young Kiffin pushing against authority by breaking uniform rules, showing up to games without his pads, and trying to copy Deion Sanders by wearing a towel in his waistband - even after being punished for it with hill runs.
Talty said those details gave him “a greater understanding" of how Kiffin grew up and how that upbringing helped shape the man he became. For Talty, that was the central question all along: why Kiffin is the way he is, and why he keeps doing the things he does.
“As you can imagine,” Talty said, “just some of the antics Lane does now, he was, as a 19-year-old, doing some of that same stuff.
“And then it was just about, can I dig in, talk to people, find new stories, find new details, to be able to give you that kind of well-rounded perspective? And I thought that I was able to do that.”
Talty told the story in chronological order, beginning with people who knew Kiffin in high school and ending with the Ole Miss and LSU circles around the decision that set up this weekend’s game. He said the process “absolutely” changed how he sees Kiffin and the image the coach has built over time.
“My hope is that people who buy and read this book,” Talty said, “will come away with some of those same feelings.
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LSU Walks Into A Tense Oxford Scene With More Than A Game At Stake
LSUs trip to Oxford carries the usual SEC weight on the field, but this one has brought a sharper edge to the buildup. With a huge crowd expected and additional security measures in place, Ole Miss officials have stressed that the changes are driven first by attendance and logistics. Still, the atmosphere around the game has taken on a more charged feel than a standard rivalry week, with Lane Kiffin acknowledging the pressure that comes with walking into a hostile setting.
Kiffin has also become part of the conversation away from football, with comedians and fans directing personal attacks his way as the game approaches. His daughter responded publicly, calling out inappropriate comments and adding another layer to an already tense backdrop. For LSU, it means the focus in Oxford will not just be on a Saturday matchup, but on managing a night where the noise around the game may be just as loud as the crowd inside it. [Read more 🡒]