Lane Kiffin reveals what he thought during Auburn job rumors
It was the drama that helped surrounded the end of the 2022 college football season, the will-he-or-won't-he story of Lane Kiffin and his alleged interest in jumping ship from Ole Miss and taking the vacant Auburn job instead.
Hearing his name connected to Auburn on an almost-daily basis, Kiffin admitted that he struggled with the way fans reacted to his thinking about the job.
That made things more difficult for the coach, who says he took the proper approach to it all.
"We screw up all the time," Kiffin said, via ESPN.
"But when you think you're doing the right thing and then you're really criticized for it, especially by your own people, I struggled with that because I feel like I went through a decision-making process that you're supposed to go through."
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Just three days before Ole Miss was set to meet rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl regular season finale, a local reporter claimed that Kiffin to Auburn was a done deal.
But the coach came out hard against that claim and called out the reporter personally.
Kiffin famously quote-tweeted the report with the response, "That's news to me, Jon. Nice sources."
In the end, Kiffin was right and he didn't move to Auburn, staying at Ole Miss instead.
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Auburn elected to hire Hugh Freeze to replace Bryan Harsin, who the school let go some weeks before.
Kiffin, for his part, said he told the Ole Miss team the night before the Egg Bowl that he planned to stay at the school.
A week later, Kiffin and Ole Miss announced a long-term contract extension.
(ESPN)
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