When LSU meets Texas in Tiger Stadium on Nov. 14, the game will carry more than the usual weight of a marquee matchup. It will also bring Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian back into the same orbit, two coaches whose careers have been intertwined for more than two decades.
Kiffin, now 51, and Sarkisian, 52, share a similar football path. Both were college quarterbacks - Kiffin at Fresno State, Sarkisian at BYU - who turned that background into careers as offensive minds and head coaches. They worked together on Pete Carroll’s USC staff from 2001-03 and again from 2005-06, and their resumes have crossed repeatedly since then.
Sarkisian was at USC after leaving Washington to take over before the 2014 season. He later took a leave of absence during the 2015 season for alcohol misuse and was fired that year. Kiffin had already gone through his own USC exit, having been the Trojans’ head coach from 2010-12 before being fired early in the 2013 season.
Both coaches later found their way to Alabama. Kiffin was there from 2014-16 as offensive coordinator after his USC firing, while Sarkisian joined the Crimson Tide in 2016 as an offensive assistant and stopped drinking.
Kiffin eventually left Alabama for Florida Atlantic late in the 2016 season, with plans to keep coaching the Tide’s offense through the playoffs, but Saban dismissed him before the national championship game because of erratic behavior. Sarkisian then stepped in as offensive coordinator for the title game, a 35-31 loss to Clemson.
Their careers kept moving in parallel after that. Sarkisian spent 2017 and ’18 as offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, then returned to Alabama as Saban’s OC from 2019-20 before becoming Texas head coach ahead of the 2021 season. Kiffin won at Florida Atlantic and took the Ole Miss job before the 2020 season, then quit drinking in early 2021.
Along the way, both men went through divorces - Kiffin once and Sarkisian twice.
That shared history has given each coach a close view of the other’s evolution. At SEC Media Days on Wednesday, Sarkisian said he has seen real change in Kiffin.
“I’m very proud of Lane,” Sarkisian said at SEC Media Days on Wednesday. “I know he’s made a lot of changes personally.
I’m really proud of him, and I think those personal changes have led to on-field success. I think there’s a direct correlation to that, so I’m very happy for him.”
Kiffin also spoke at Media Days about stepping away from social media and the value of getting rid of bad habits.
“If you really want to keep growing, a lot of people add things as they go versus subtracting things that are issues,” Kiffin said. “Whether that’s diet, whether that’s in my situation - alcohol, whether that’s things that are subtracted along the way - toxic relationships, things that as you grow you decide, okay, I’m going to continue to grow.”
Sarkisian said he sees that growth reflected in Kiffin’s work.
“I think Lane’s a really good coach,” Sarkisian said. “Everywhere he’s been, there’s been success. Obviously the most recent success of what he’s had at Ole Miss.”
Kiffin’s college head coaching record is 116-53 over 14 years, with 10-win seasons in seven different years, including each of the last three. He has missed a bowl game only three times, one of them his final season at USC, when he was fired after five games.
At Ole Miss, his 55 wins in six seasons rank second among SEC coaches over that span, behind only Georgia’s Kirby Smart at 73-9.
Sarkisian said Kiffin’s style has always stood out.
“He’s always going to assemble a talented roster,” Sarkisian said. “He’s always going to be creative, whether it’s through schemes, through recruiting, whatever that looks like.
He does not look at things traditionally. He’s always going to try to think outside the box to find a unique way to accomplish something, and so I expect him to continue to do that at LSU.”
That creativity will matter quickly in Baton Rouge. Kiffin’s first major challenge is rebuilding a roster that lost 66 players from last year’s 110, many of whom he did not want back. His answer was aggressive: more than $40 million spent on the No. 1 transfer class in college football.
Sarkisian said the resources around Kiffin will only help.
“Now he’s got more resources,” he said. “He’s got more support, so I think that that’s an opportunity for him to continue to grow on the path and the journey that he’s on.”
In Other News...
Two LSU Returners Are Feeling The Heat Entering Kiffin's First Camp
Fall camp is arriving with a different kind of urgency around LSU, because Lane Kiffins first roster has plenty of new faces and not many jobs that look settled. Up front, the Tigers need a cleaner, tougher season from an offensive line that had too many rough stretches a year ago, and the returning names in that group know they are being judged on more than just experience.
Weston Davis is one of the clearest examples of how quickly the pressure can shift when a staff changes and the competition gets deeper. He and Braelin Moore are trying to turn last seasons inconsistency into something more dependable, while the receiver room is crowded enough that every practice rep matters. Tre Brown is part of that traffic jam after transferring in, and with so many wideouts in the mix, LSUs early camp work will go a long way toward sorting out who earns trust first. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin's LSU Exit Drama Is Drawing An Uncomfortable New Comparison
Lane Kiffins move to LSU has already created one of the stranger coaching transitions in recent SEC memory, and the comparison now hanging over it is an uncomfortable one. Kiffin accepted the Tigers job after his six-year run at Ole Miss, then watched the fallout keep him from coaching the Rebels in the College Football Playoff, a twist that has kept the story attached to him even after the hire became official.
Jon Sumralls path added another layer when Florida hired him away from Tulane and still allowed him to coach the Green Wave in the playoff opener before that season ended. The two coaches discussed their situations at SEC Media Days, along with the broader coaching search process, and the contrast between the exits has only sharpened the scrutiny around how these high-stakes moves are handled when a season is still alive. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin Shared A Wild Nick Saban Story LSU Fans Will Love
Nick Saban has plenty of scar tissue from going back to Baton Rouge as Alabamas coach, and Lane Kiffin knows exactly why that history still resonates around LSU. Kiffin talked through Sabans advice about handling ugly road environments, the kind of mindset a visiting coach needs when the crowd is already against him before kickoff. For LSU fans, it is the sort of old SEC war story that still lands because it comes with all the baggage of Sabans years on the other sideline.
Kiffins own return to Ole Miss figures to bring a similar kind of heat, and Saban apparently made sure he understood the assignment. The conversation even veered into one of those only-in-college-football anecdotes about Sabans wife trying to counteract the bad vibes around LSU games, which only adds to the legend of those trips. However Kiffins next visit unfolds, it sounds like Saban believes he may need all the help he can get. [Read more 🡒]