Lane Kiffin recently caught a lot of flak for his comments regarding Ole Miss in his interview with Vanity Fair. Some may argue that the LSU head coach sent the wrong message and should have chosen his words more wisely, but former Ole Miss and Tigers coach Ed Orgeron sees some validity in Kiffin's statements.
Orgeron understands the position Kiffin is in, both culturally and professionally, better than anyone, as he once held head-coaching positions at Kiffin's two most recent programs.
Orgeron defended Kiffin in one of his latest interviews, saying that there was indeed a "stigma" that surrounded Ole Miss. The school, though it has made strong efforts to distance itself over the years, used to have traditions and a mascot that deeply tied to the Confederacy and the state of Mississippi's checkered racial history.
"I think that stigma is always going to stay with them," Orgeron said to Mike Detillier of WWL. "Just like other schools have a stigma, but that is definitely there at Ole Miss.”
Orgeron pointed to his own experiences at Ole Miss, noting that he had some of the same issues on the recruiting trail as Kiffin did, with players or their families harboring hard feelings about moving to Oxford, Miss. The coach referenced positive experiences players had at Ole Miss during his tenure once they got there, but getting them to the point of being on the team was, at times, a task in itself.
"Yeah, (those issues were) there, no question," Orgeron said. "I mean, they had a history there of, you know, racism and Colonel Reb, but you know what, when we got there, the kids that we had were treated good and they had success, but we did face it in recruiting and they still have that stigma, but look, they overcame it. They got some great players. They’ve had success, graduated, went on to the NFL."
Lane Kiffin's comments that got him here and the backlash he's faced
Kiffin apologized and somewhat walked back some of his comments in the Vanity Fair interview, saying they were not "calculated." He also explained that they were not meant to attack Ole Miss, only to elaborate on something that was, in fact, his own experience.
“‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,’” Kiffin had said. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge... parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’”
Some took absolutely no issue with that, claiming it was backed by clear evidence and that it was not Kiffin trying to make any type of jab. Others strongly ridiculed him for his words, and probably no one to the degree that analyst Tim Brando did.
"The lesson that I think that we need to maybe teach (Lane Kiffin) yet again is that just because the decimal point is on your check where it is, it doesn't give you license to be this stupid... stupid, arrogant, condescending and everything you never want to see in a leader of men," Brando said.
It's easy to argue Brando and others went overboard here. But, still, Kiffin's words remain polarizing. And they probably will until the end of time, as many of his past statements continue to do.
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