The Josh Innes Show - More Kiffin Slander

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

I don't know how this happened, but somehow I've become the Lane Kiffin Stan. I read these stories and I feel compelled to defend the guy. Perhaps it's because I want him to be the LSU coach. I don't know. But, these people have no clue what it's like to be in his spot. Also, why can this only end with him being a hero of a villain? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So it's another day and another installment of the Lane Kiffin saga with LSU and Florida and Ole Miss and everybody's got their thoughts on this. And you know where I stand on it. None of these people, these media people, and most of these average people that are fans or whatever, they have no concept of what it's like to be in a situation like this. Now, I will be critical of Lane in the way he's handled some press conferences, but part of it is, like, what are you supposed to say? Like on one hand, you got the dudes that are playing for you. You got the administration in Ole Miss who's trying to keep you. Like, what do you say?

Like, he said some dumb things in these press conferences. But what do you say? It is an unviable spot. It's not like the NFL or other professions where you can leave a job, and then you wait until the season's over and go take another job. The calendar does not work out that way for college athletics. Like, you have to recruit, you got signing periods, you got the NIL shit, the portal that you have to do in December.

So these teams and these schools need coaches. So that's the way this works. So it's easy to dump on the guy. And I think he has done some things that are misguided and said some things that are misguided. And he's playing dumb in some instances. I think if you're just kind of upfront about at least a little bit of it, like everybody on your team knows that your name is being mentioned for these jobs.

They all know it. So when someone asks you a question, like look, by the way, it's a hard question to answer because you don't know where you're going to be. But when someone says, you know, where are you going to be coaching next year? Do you think it's going to be Ole Miss? How do you answer that? You say, I don't know. Like, I don't know where I'm going to be.

Now, I would think that the guy is made up his mind. Like at this point, like you feel like he'd have his mind made up. You feel like Ole Miss wants him out of there before they play their next game, which is not this weekend, but next weekend for the Egg Bowl. You would think all that, but I don't know. I don't know what they're thinking. Now, they're going to get rid of him before a playoff game. They're going to have somebody else coach that if he decides to.

leave, which it looks like he is, but I don't know. Let's play a couple commercials, and we will continue. All right, so here's another story. Again, judgmental, dufous people that think they have all the right answers about this guy, people who have never and will never be in anything close to this. Like this person who wrote this story, Blake Topmire at USA Today, Hero or heel, Lange Kiffin must ask himself one big question as he moles Florida and LSU. Keep in mind, by the way, and all these people talking about,

OV. He leaves Ole Miss, what a piece of shit, and they're in the playoff chase. And that is a tough put. You're in the middle of a playoff chase. You're going to be in the college football playoff if you beat Mississippi State. And maybe if you lose to Mississippi State, you're still going to be in. So it's tough. I get it. Like you want to compete for that championship and you want to win that championship.

So I get that part of it being a difficult scenario. However, no one at Ole Miss gave a shit when this dude left FAU to go coach them. Or it was an FAU, FIU, FIU, wherever he was the coach before he went back to Ole Miss. No one was like, oh my God, what a giant piece of shit in the way this all went down. And I get it, they're not apples to apples. I get that one is obvious. Like, you're not going to stay at FAU instead of going to the SEC. I get that.

I understand that this move is viewed as a lateral move to a lot of people. is leaving Ole Miss for LSU or Florida a better move. Some people can't wrap their brain around that. There's the other idea that you built this thing. You've got a team that shouldn't even be in the college football playoff based on if you look at the roster, look at the quarterback situation, yet you've got them there. Like, I get it. I am aware and I understand where people have these viewpoints.

The viewpoint I don't get is the idea that this guy is some sort of piece of shit. This is a gigantic life decision that this guy has to make. so he says flighty things he trolls on the internet all of these things are true but this is a tough position to be put in and you put yourself in it i guess but this is a tough part of life and the way college football works is you have to make these decisions in the middle of a season it's fucked up in that way but it's the world so let's read this i have not read this blake topmire's story but i feel like it's going to be some sanctimonious piece of shit that's going to say if you stay at omis you're the hero if you leave for one of these other schools you're a

prick. That's what it's going to come down to. But let's see. Here's a get your popcorn ready. Get your popcorn ready. Here's a play in three acts. Mississippi loses the egg bowl in Starkville. Lange Kiffin leaves for another job and the rebels are left out of the college football playoff. Epilogue, Ole Miss fans hate Kiffin forever, and he reprises his past role as the villainous traitor. The Greeks, Oedipus Rex would have nothing on this modern day tragedy in Dixie. Now, in contrast, How about the three-act drama that's more uplifting, except for those in Starkville and Gainesville? One, Ole Miss quiets the cowbells and wins the Egg Bowl.

Kiffin signs a contract extension and announces he's riding with the rebels. Ole Miss qualifies for the playoff for the first time in history and plays into January. Epilogue, Kiffin eventually leaves Ole Miss years later, but upon his retirement. A statue is built in Oxford. Kiffin is welcome back a hero, and he'll be remembered for his time with the rebels as the most reward. 14 years of his career. Okay, I'll bite. Why are those the only two options that can happen? He leaves and he's a traitorous piece of shit that can't be redeemed or he stays there and they build a statue. There is a middle ground there where they go. They lose in the playoff. They never

get back there again. They fire them in three years because they have a couple of down years. Keep in mind that every great relationship or every relationship that people are in starts with the best of intentions and things go well and then they just, you know, they could fall off. Like I don't like that those are the only two possible things that could happen in this Blake Topmire's mind. In his mind, there are two things. Guy leaves, he's a piece of shit, guy stays and they build a statue. There's

no guarantee of that. Now, there is a guarantee that if he stays, they're going to be in the college football playoff because it's hard to believe they lose to Mississippi State. And they might play a home playoff game. So that'd be a huge deal. I understand all that. But there is that chance that you stay there and you decide

not to go to LSU, where the resources are better, presumably, and multiple coaches, three different coaches in this century have won a championship, two of whom would have not won a championship anywhere else. If Les Miles would have stayed at Oklahoma State, he never would have won a title. And if he would have jumped in 2007 and was a Michigan man and would have gone, he wasn't going to win a national championship at Michigan either. LSU gave him all the resources because LSU, especially in that era,

when NIL didn't exist, had all of the advantages in recruiting, right? But, like, let's say that's the case. Let's say that he goes. He never gets back to this point again. People get bored with going nine and three every year, which will happen because it happens everywhere. That is just the way of life. Les Miles had a great run on LSU.

And pretty consistently, he'd win at least nine games, some years 10. They'd be hot some years and win 11. Like, that happened. But eventually people get bored with it. LSU went nine and three every year, lost three games at least, or whatever with Brian Kelly every year. People get bored with that shit, man. So, like, the idea that there's just two options in this Lane Kiffin world, which is he stays and he's the all-time winning his coach and the greatest coach ever, and they build a statue and he retires.

Like, if you think that Lane Kiffin is going to retire at whatever school he's at next, I got some fucking oceanfront property. Whether it's Ole Miss or LSU, none of these guys are going to do that. That's not how most of them operate. Most of them don't operate in this world where you're one place and then you retire. They're not, you know, I was going to say Bear Bryant, but Bear Bryant coached four different places. places. You know, that's not the way these guys work. There's movement. I mean, I know this isn't college, but look at Sean Payton. Sean Payton is the greatest coach in the history of the New Orleans. Currently, he is not the greatest coach of the Broncos. But he got bored in New Orleans, wanted something different, left, and now he's the coach of the Broncos. That's how things work, and that's how people operate. This is not the 1950s. You know, most guys are not staying 20 years at one school. It's very rare that that kind of shit happens. You see it with like a Kirk Ferrence, and I get that there are guys like that. But it is a very rare occurrence that you've got guys that are, like, long for these places. So, like, dude, there's a chance that Lane Kiffin signs an extension tomorrow.

Ten years, I'll be the coach at Ole Miss. And then next year, Alabama fires Kalin-de-Bore. And they go to Lane Kiffin and say, we wanted to go. Like, so just because you sign a contract, just because, like, oh, I've signed an extension, I'm here. Bro, that dude could leave next year. Like, that's the thing about all these. These contracts ain't worth the pay. paper that they're written on.

You know, like, they ain't worth toilet paper. You can wipe your ass with most of these contracts. There's no binding shit there. Like, my contract's fucking binding. Like, if I left, like, I can't leave. I'm held hostage by my contract. These guys ain't held hostage by their contracts. It's like, so if you think that you sign some guy, dude, LSU could sign this guy tomorrow.

And look, and he'd be forfeiting a lot of money if he left. But, like, let's say he took the job at LSU. And then next year, Alabama opened up, and that's his dream job. And Lane is clearly a dude that, like, is a job. job hopper and he's always constantly has one eye on something else right he could leave just like these players that sign a letter of intent and then don't come or these guys who stay for a year and oh I didn't get enough playing time I'm off to another school then the nil is better at this school I'm going to another school it's all transactional that's all this is get your fucking head out of this

loyalty cloud it doesn't exist it is dead this is a soulless industry and I'm not trying to be Mr. Bitter, and I love college football. It is a soulless industry. It is a transactional, big money, prostitution ring. It is soulless. Hell, prostitution may have soul, a little bit more. Because maybe one of them will kiss you on the mouth. Maybe.

But let's see what else this guy has to say. As Kiffin considers overtures from Florida and LSU while his team pursues the playoff, he must ask himself, what type of production does he want to become the star in? Is he tired of being the renegade? Or does he deep down miss the heel turn? Is he ready to scratch the itch? I know he must feel for a plot twist. Did Ole Miss become his forever love? Did he fully and truly embrace Oxford, complete with the rocking chairs on his veranda? Or is it just one of the stories he told to refine his image? Like, but what if that's not true? Like, it is possible that he is not the same person he was, but this opportunity that he had no clue was coming up came up.

Like, why is it that he, there's only two options. He either stays at Ole Miss or he's a piece of shit. He either stays at Ole Miss or he was a total fraud and this whole thing was a farce. Why is that the case? Because these people don't fucking know. They don't know what it's like to be sought after by people. They don't know what it's like to have an opportunity come up that they didn't see coming up. You think you love the situation you're in and you'd be content doing it for 50 years.

But something else came up and you're like, holy shit, this is my chance. Now, maybe he's had his eye on other jobs this entire time, which is very possible and probably true. Because maybe he's viewed forever that Ole Miss, while it's fun, is not the end-all be-all because he needs to go somewhere that's bigger. That is also very possible. I'm not disputing that. I'm not arguing that. But like this idea that all these dipshit writers come to you with, which is, well, there's two options. He's either the good guy or the bad guy.

He's either recovered or redeemed himself or he's still the same piece of shit that he used to be. he ain't like lane kiffin's not some bad boy greaser out there that the girl tries to clean up and she thinks he clean this isn't walk away joe you know this is not like hey we told you this guy's born to be a lever tell you from the word go like like you i'll tell you he's gonna leave your ass at that hotel while you're asleep and he's gonna go rob a fucking bank that's not what this is this is a guy with options in life and by the way he has options and not only does he have options but if he sucks for two years the school will be so quick to want to get him out of there and go get the next guy that's reality like everybody spins this idea that he'll have this job at olmiss forever and i've been someone saying that too but maybe he won't what if right now they're really excited to be in the playoff and there's that newness of being in the playoff in two or three years if they stop making it they want that taste again and you ain't getting them there and they believe that you've you've peaked you've hit the mountain top it can't go any farther and then

all of a sudden the boosters who loved you for a couple of years. Now we're like, hmm, well, let's talk to some people in charge. I don't like the way this is going. I think we need to find something here. Let's get rid of this guy because there's a new hot, shiny toy. You know, to see this guy's available? Oh, boy, this school fired this guy. Like, it's all transactional and it's all bullshit.

Is he ready to give up dreams of brand names and accept his happiness and success at the emboldened underdog punching above its historical ways? or does he think he's taking Ole Miss as high as he could take it and he could take Florida or LSU higher? Does he make a better hero or a black hat? Like, I don't know. Like, look, I understand criticizing the dude because of the way he's answering questions in a press conference. I also understand it's an unwinnable spot for the guy in the press conference.

There's nothing you can do. Because you don't know where you're going to be. And you're forced into this situation. but the people who get it are people who have had options. That's who understands this shit. If you've had options in life, you know. The most loyal people in the world are the ones who don't have options. It sounds callous.

It sounds very blunt, but it's true. The people who don't have options are the most loyal people. The people who have options are the ones that maybe job hopper or whatever. It's why LeBron goes to 10 different places. and only signs two-year contracts to go from place to place. This is a different universe. Now, that's not to say that some people don't just enjoy the spot they're in and want to stay there. Those people exist.

Like, there are people who stay in places even if they have options. I'm not telling you they don't. My dad has had options a thousand times to go other places. But he's been in Baton Rouge for 30 years. He enjoys it and it's comfortable there. And he's a big fish in a small pond, as he'll tell you. And it's great. That's not to say he hasn't had chances to go other places.

He could have moved to L.A. If my dad would have moved to L.A. when he first started getting into the Scooby shit, he'd probably still be doing a lot higher profile Scooby shit. Didn't want to move to L.A. It was comfortable with what he was doing. They didn't want to move the family to L.A. Fuck, I would have. It would be like, kids, load up the wagon queen family truckster. We're going to L.A.

Dad didn't want to do it. But he could have. He wouldn't have had a radio job, probably. But he could have gone to L.A. and done a lot more voice acting and probably would have been a more high-profile guy than he is. Now he's kind of an under the radar voice guy, but he could have been a bigger deal. He didn't do it. So anyway, it's easy to shit on people when you don't know what it's like to be in that spot.

And I get some of the judgment, and I don't know why I'm standing for this guy. And it's not because, oh, he may be the LSU coach. Because you know what? When he becomes the LSU coach, you know what's going to happen next year? Some big job's going to open up. And people know that Lane's got this reputation as a job hopper and his name is going to make their way around again. And Lane's going to listen again because that's who Lane is. Some people are like that

Like I have a job here If somebody called me about a job I knew I can't leave But I enjoy hearing how much they like me Maybe it's a self-esteem thing or something I don't know but there's something about Like you know you're not going to do anything with it Like there are women out there

They're not going to cheat on their husbands They're not going to fuck around But they like to know that there's another guy out there That finds them attractive Yeah I get it I understand it More to come