The SEC is considering taking action against Lane Kiffin before he has even coached his first game with the LSU Tigers. The conference, according to multiple reports, is taking issue with some of his comments about Ole Miss during his Vanity Fair interview earlier this year.
While some thought Kiffin was simply stating a fact about something that set him back in recruiting with the Rebels, others took offense at it, finding the statement to be hyperbolic or made out of a desire to take a jab at his former program.
Kiffin drew a contrast between Baton Rouge and Oxford regarding recruiting Black players and the stigma surrounding the Rebels' history.
“‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,” Kiffin 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.’”
Kiffin quickly walked back his comments and apologized, indicating that he did not intend for them to be taken the way they may have been viewed. Especially if done so out of context. The LSU coach actually made a point of calling Vanity Fair after the interview because he was concerned that something like that might happen.
"I just hope (what I said) comes across as respectful to Ole Miss," Kiffin said. "There are some things that I'm saying that are factual; they're not shots."
Should the SEC actually seek to remprimand Lane Kiffin?
Does the SEC have a position here? Well, that's not a question you are likely going to get a unanimous answer to from any one group of people. But one viewpoint is that Kiffin makes claims which can be supported by evidence, and he is referencing his own experiences. Those, ony he can truly speak on.
And one of his newest staff members, Ed Orgeron, echoed Kiffin's comments when speaking on his own experience in Oxford. Orgeron made those comments just before he was hired, highlighting the "stigma" that exists due to Ole Miss having a history that once had deep ties to the Confederacy.
"(Those issues were) there, no question," Orgeron said to Mike Detillier of WWL Radio. "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."
If all of that is not enough, the fact that Kiffin showed self-awareness and took initiative should be. Kiffin has already owned up to whatever he wishes he had said more carefully, has backed and garnered support for the reason he made these statements, and has continued moving forward in a positive direction.
Anything to be done further is simply overkill.
Add us as a preferred source on Google