Mississippi State Police provided departing coach Lane Kiffin a police escort to catch his flight to Baton Rouge and said his claims of fans “trying to run him off the road” were false.
The escort using multiple police vehicles to safeguard Kiffin’s transport to the airport was confirmed by Mississippi’s Department of Public Safety in response to Kiffin’s claims he and son, Knox, were endangered by rabid fans on the drive to their private jet to Louisiana.
“Knox and I driving and people trying to run us off the road, things that were said to us, that’s the SEC,” Kiffin said Sunday in Baton Rouge.
“Call a cop that you know so they’ll help you,” Kiffin said at his introductory press conference on Sunday. “Because you personally know them because you are leaving the state. And you gotta turn around, and people are screaming at you, you know, trying to run you off the road I don’t know what they’re gonna do.
“And so that. … That affects you. And that airport scene, and all the things being said, I understand that. It’s the passion. But they’re saying that about you, that you thought you did a really good job for six years for them. And that affects you. And even on the plane down there I’m kind of like ‘yeah we made this decision but like, god I really…’ You know?”
It’s only the latest example of Kiffin’s version of the events coinciding with his exit from Ole Miss not matching those on or associated with the team he left behind.
Rebels players and Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter gave differing accounts to Kiffin’s description of his departure from Oxford, Miss., to become LSU’s head coach.
Even with No. 6 Ole Miss a lock to be included in the upcoming College Football Playoff, the Ole Miss administration ousted Kiffin on Saturday as soon as he revealed his intention to take the LSU job.
Kiffin wrote on social media that the Rebels players asked Carter “to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”
Referencing Kiffin reportedly telling the Ole Miss players he wanted to stay on for the CFP, Rebels linebacker Suntarine Perkins tweeted, “That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this.”
Ole Miss offensive lineman Brycen Sanders tweeted, quoting Kiffin’s statement, “‘Despite the team asking me to keep coaching’. I think everyone that was in that room would disagree”
Rebels offensive lineman Paris Wilkins replied to Sanders’ post, writing, “Fax this was not said from anyone!!”
Carter, in a Wednesday interview with SuperTalk Mississippi, added that Kiffin said “a lot of things publicly that I’m not sure are totally accurate.”
Kiffin maintained that he didn’t know he wouldn’t be allowed to coach Ole Miss in the CFP until Sunday. However, Carter said, “It was very clear that coaching in the postseason was not going to be an option for Coach Kiffin several weeks ago.”
Regarding Kiffin’s meeting with his now-former players, Carter said, “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.”
–Field Level Media