Lane Kiffin has built a reputation as one of college football’s most inventive offensive minds, the kind of coach who can make defenses chase shadows. But when the Rebels need to impose their will, Kiffin still leans on something much simpler: the run game.
That balance has defined his offense at Ole Miss, where the numbers have piled up in every direction. From 2020 through 2025, Kiffin’s teams finished No.
3, No. 6, No.
8, No. 13, No. 2 and No. 2 in total yards.
The passing game has been just as loud, with finishes of No. 2 and No. 3 in passing over the last two seasons, plus No. 3 and No. 10 in scoring.
Still, Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. have never been interested in becoming a one-note passing outfit. Weis, who called plays under Kiffin’s direction from 2022-25 at Ole Miss and followed him to LSU after last regular season, has helped steer an attack that has repeatedly found ways to run the football.
Ole Miss led the SEC in rushing in 2020 with 210.6 yards per game and again in 2022 with 256.6. The Rebels were third in the league in 2021 at 217.6 yards a game, fifth in 2023 at 176.3, fifth again in 2024 at 175.7 and sixth last season at 176.3. The 2022 offense finished third nationally in rushing.
“That’s a hell of a stat,” Kiffin said when he was told incorrectly at his post practice press conference on Wednesday that Ole Miss had led the SEC in rushing over the last five years. “I don’t think that’s accurate, but we’ll take it.”
He did not push back on the bigger point.
“I think that running the ball is very critical,” he said, though he added that how much the Rebels do it depends on the roster and the moment.
“Each year is different, based off of your team, your situation, the personnel that you have,” he said.
That’s the key to understanding Kiffin. He has old-school DNA through his father, former NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, along with mentor coaches Pete Carroll and Nick Saban, both known for defense. But he is not a throwback who wants to run into a wall just because that’s the tradition.
“We don’t do just what we do,” he said. “That’s not how we run systems, programs, whatever. It’s always evolving.”
The next version of the offense is still taking shape as No. 13 LSU prepares to open the 2026 season against No.
23 Clemson in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC. Kiffin and Weis will spend the coming weeks sorting through a rebuilt offensive line, quarterback Sam Leavitt, a group of new receivers and the backfield pieces already in place with Caden Durham and Harlem Berry, plus transfer Dilin Jones.
“It’s always changing to, ‘What does that team do well? What are the specific needs for who you’re playing?’
All those things,” Kiffin said. “I can’t even tell you at this time of year what the team’s going to look like, even what I know already.
Just because of the variables that start to happen and injuries and things.”
The line of scrimmage is where he wants to begin. Kiffin said that in a first year, physicality up front matters most, and he tied that belief to Saban’s influence.
“Any time in a first year, it’s important that your team has a physicality up front,” he said, echoing Saban. “We’ve tried to recruit to that.
We’re not to where we will be some day. But that’s important, I believe.
And even though we go fast on offense, and at times we use big receiver splits, and people go, ‘Oh, passing team.’ And the last two years, we’ve had really good passing numbers and touchdown numbers.”
Those numbers were real enough. Ole Miss finished second nationally in passing in 2024 at 350.8 yards per game and third in scoring at 38.6 points per game in a 10-3, 5-3 season with Jaxson Dart at quarterback. Last season, the Rebels were No. 3 in passing at 313.3 yards per game and 10th in scoring at 37 points per game with Trinidad Chambliss leading a 13-1 run to the College Football Playoff semifinals.
But Kiffin’s point was never that the pass game is the whole story.
“But to me, when we’ve been really good, you’ve got to be able to run the ball in critical situations, even if you’re throwing the ball a lot during the game and you’re ahead,” Kiffin said. “In this conference, you’re going to have a lot of one-score games.”
Ole Miss went 5-1 in one-score games against SEC teams last season.
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