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Lane Kiffin Explains Why He Cancelled ‘College GameDay’ Appearance, But Fans Aren’t Buying It

The newly minted LSU coach wasn’t able to make it to Atlanta for ‘College GameDay’ on Saturday.

Tyler Lauletta

LSU’s Lane Kiffin abruptly cancelled what would have been a fascinating appearance on ‘College GameDay.’
LSU’s Lane Kiffin abruptly cancelled what would have been a fascinating appearance on ‘College GameDay.’ / Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
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Lane Kiffin can’t stop making news, even when the news is that he won’t be making news.

On Friday night, shortly after LSU landed the commitment of No. 1 recruit Lamar Brown, Kiffin tweeted out that he had stayed a bit longer than he expected in Baton Rouge, and thus, would not be able to make it to Atlanta for his advertised interview with the College GameDay crew ahead of conference championship Saturday.

It was a disappointing development for fans who were hoping to hear Kiffin speak a bit more loosely about his dramatic decision to jump from Ole Miss to LSU in the middle of the Rebels’ run to the College Football Playoff.

So far, Kiffin has spoken at his introductory press conference at LSU and a brief interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith just before he got on the plane to Baton Rouge. An interview on GameDay, even with a panel of hosts still clearly in the coach’s corner, would have given fans the first opportunity to hear Kiffin explain his decision in a more casual setting.

While it’s totally reasonable that Kiffin decided his time was better spent on the recruiting trail than at the GameDay desk, fans were suspicious that Kiffin had changed up his schedule simply to get out of the interview.

It’s hard to imagine that there are college football fans out there who are thinking, “You know what I haven’t gotten enough of over the past three weeks? Lane Kiffin talking.” And yet.

While Kiffin didn’t make it to GameDay this weekend, he’s already at work building a roster for the Tigers that will hopefully ensure that GameDay comes to them in 2026.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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