The recent Lane Kiffin news should make Clemson fans take a step back

Picture form The Clemson Insider

On Nov. 30, the college football landscape stood still as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin inked a seven-year, $91 million deal with LSU to become their 34th head coach. This decision came despite Ole Miss having an 11-1, 7-1 SEC record and currently holding a No. 6 spot in the CFP rankings. Kiffin will be unable to coach the Rebels in their playoff push to compete for the National Championship.

The decision blew many people away and infuriated everyone in Mississippi. Ole Miss players have told Kiffin to “get out,” and allegedly, Rebel fans tried to run him off the road en route to the airport. Not only did Kiffin leave Ole Miss randomly, but he left them in the midst of the team’s most successful season in program history. And even worse, to an opposing school in the Rebels’ conference.

The decision is no doubt a snake-like move and is extremely bad for the sport. It draws storylines away from the marquee event in the College Football Playoff, and could unnecessarily derail one of the country’s best teams in the process. The fact that this move was even allowed without any interference up to this point in the season shows some incompetence at the highest level of college football.

It is ultimately a show of selfishness, and not only that, but an insane detriment to Ole Miss itself. This is a program that could lose millions of dollars if it is placed differently in the CFP solely due to external factors — much like how the undefeated 2023 Florida State squad was taken out of the playoff due to quarterback Jordan Travis suffering a season-ending injury.

It’s not to say Kiffin is not a great coach. He has proven himself extremely capable of achieving success, having won a title as an offensive coordinator for Nick Saban’s 2015 Alabama team, completed a turnaround of the Florida Atlantic football team and now brought Ole Miss to a playoff spot in college football’s toughest conference.

Yet, this move by Kiffin is nothing out of the ordinary by his standards. He ran away from Tennessee after a promising 7-6 season in 2009 for the vacant head coaching position at USC. It was nearly the same exact story, except this time, Ole Miss has a real shot at the championship.

In the wake of all this, it’s best for Clemson fans to take a step back and appreciate what they have. Dabo Swinney has been a staple of the Tigers since he took over for Tommy Bowden in 2008. That’s not to say they haven’t had down years, with a 6-7 record in 2010 and most recently a 7-5 outing this season. Not only does Swinney take the fall for any missteps Clemson makes, but he has successfully rebuilt the Tigers into a program based on core values that exude family, trust and keeping the main thing the main thing.

In down years, there’s no doubt that Swinney’s leading style isn’t the most flashy. He does not have the headline-making ability that Kiffin has, but maybe that’s a blessing. Swinney has proven himself to take a higher stance from the drama of the NIL era of college football, bringing in recruits the old-fashioned way and still continuing to keep Clemson where it’s at: with the power of the paw.

College football has recently become the house of the snake, inviting actions like Kiffin’s among coaches. But beyond just coaches, baseless player transfers and flipped commitments have rotted college’s once amateur-based sport into one with a more semi-professional feel. The family-style coaching staff that Swinney has enlisted in the Clemson hills does not reek of the slithering money sign that lies within everything in college football nowadays.

In a way, it is admirable that Clemson maintains such a reputation despite the lack of transfer portal usage. It may be true that changes need to be made in the coaching staff for Clemson to reach its potential in 2026 and beyond. However, this does not start with Dabo jumping ship to the vacant Penn State job randomly, or even worse, to the Virginia Tech role just filled by James Franklin.

Swinney’s legacy at Clemson extends far beyond the cash-grabbing vampire that is current-day college football. His time at Clemson, for however far it extends into the future, is the complete opposite of any stint that Kiffin has had and will continue to have. While the 2025 season did not go as planned, Swinney has continued to reaffirm that he is here for the betterment of the school and its players.

At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about: making the lives of these players great and bringing the school so much more beyond the football field. Coach Swinney sees his Clemson team as his sons, while Kiffin saw Ole Miss — and will see LSU — as a commodity to make him more money.

THIS STORY WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN CLEMSON UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER, THE TIGER.