Adam Rittenberg
Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter disputed several claims made by former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin, including the timing of when Kiffin was informed he couldn’t coach the team in the postseason.
Appearing Wednesday on SuperTalk Mississippi, Carter said Kiffin, announced as LSU‘s coach Sunday, has said “a lot of things publicly that I’m not sure are totally accurate.” Among those is the claim that he only learned early Sunday that he would not be coaching Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff.
Carter said Kiffin and his representatives were told several weeks earlier that coaching Ole Miss in the CFP was not possible if Kiffin took another job. The only potential change was if Ole Miss qualified for the SEC title game, but Carter had not decided whether Kiffin would have coached that game, either.
“It was very clear that coaching in the postseason was not going to be an option for Coach Kiffin several weeks ago,” Carter told host Richard Cross.
Carter said Kiffin informed him at around 6 p.m. Saturday that he would be accepting the LSU job. Carter and other Ole Miss officials worked well into the night on the football staff and immediately targeted defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who was announced Sunday as the Rebels’ next coach.
In announcing his departure Sunday, Kiffin wrote that players had asked him to remain as coach through the CFP to maximize performance. Carter said of a meeting between Kiffin and Ole Miss’ leadership group, “I don’t think the way he portrayed that meeting was accurate. There was a lot of pushback to him leaving. … Begging for him to stay is certainly an overstatement, and our players are starting to show what really happened in that meeting.”
Several prominent Ole Miss players posted Tuesday night on X, disputing Kiffin’s claim about them asking him to stay. Star linebacker Suntarine Perkins reposted Kiffin’s message and wrote, “That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this.”
That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this . https://t.co/tssQmvGgQ3
— suntarine perkins (@suntarine) December 3, 2025
Kiffin has said several times that he respected Carter’s decision not to have him coach in the postseason. On Tuesday, he allowed offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., who came with him and other Ole Miss assistants to LSU, to rejoin Ole Miss for the CFP.
“We had been talking to Charlie about coming back and calling the plays, and Charlie was committed to that from the very first moment,” Carter told SuperTalk Mississippi. “Honestly, I think Charlie was put in a little bit of a tough spot with the way he was asked to go to Baton Rouge, but man, I could not be more fired up about having Charlie Weis back here.”
