Tennessee Vols fans forgave Lane Kiffin and then he punched them in the gut again and ensured he’ll forever be a villain in Knoxville

LSU head coach Lane Kiffin just solidified his villain status in Knoxville

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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Over the last 10 years, Tennessee Vols fans had seemingly softened on former UT head coach Lane Kiffin.

For years, Kiffin’s name was a curse word in Knoxville after he unexpectedly resigned as Tennessee’s head coach in early 2010 to chase his dream at USC.

That dream, though, turned out to be a nightmare. Kiffin was fired five games into the 2013 season after the Trojans failed to live up to lofty expectations.

At that point, Kiffin began a lengthy image rehab process. He spent three seasons as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama before landing the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic.

Kiffin spent three seasons at FAU before making his much anticipated return to the SEC as the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels.

While in Oxford, Kiffin appeared to put his controversial past behind him. And Tennessee fans seemed to move on from the way he left Knoxville a decade earlier. Kiffin would regularly interact with Vols fans on social media while appearing to support Tennessee athletics with various tweets that would sometimes include orange heart emojis.

It was all an act.

Lane Kiffin’s latest stunt makes him an enemy in Knoxville once again

Kiffin undid all of his goodwill with Vols fans last week with the desperate stunt he pulled off in his pursuit of Arizona State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt.

In case you somehow missed it, here’s a quick recap of what went down. Leavitt, the top quarterback in the portal, took a visit to LSU last week. While on that visit, Kiffin started pursuing Washington quarterback Demond Williams, who had already signed a deal with the Huskies. Leavitt then went on his visit to Tennessee, which was extended by a day.

Leavitt, who wasn’t expected to make a decision until he completed all of his visits, then planned to see Miami. That’s when Kiffin weirdly flew to Knoxville to win back Leavitt before he took his trip to Miami.

Kiffin’s efforts were eventually successful — Leavitt signed with LSU on Monday evening after a late push from Tennessee that was nearly successful.

Ultimately, LSU was in a better spot to land Leavitt. The Tigers don’t have an established quarterback room at this point, so there wasn’t that aspect to worry about. Meanwhile, the Vols are already paying George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon, two quarterbacks Tennessee really likes. Giving Leavitt a big check could’ve impacted the vibes in that room.

There’s also the fact that Leavitt is coming off a foot injury and will miss spring practice. He should be good to go for the 2026 season, but giving a quarterback that’s currently injured a $5 to $6 million deal is a risk. LSU was in a better spot to take that risk (probably not a bad risk, either — I think Leavitt is a really good player and will perform at a high level if healthy).

It’s not necessarily the loss of Leavitt to LSU that has Vols fans seeing red with Kiffin — it’s the absolute lack of respect that Kiffin showed by flying to Knoxville to beg a kid to commit to him. Look, it’s a cutthroat world in college football. Coaches have to resort to desperate actions that would be viewed as toxic in any other setting. But everyone has a line they don’t cross. I’m not sure that line exists for Kiffin at this point. He tried to steal a kid that had already signed with Washington (which in turn created a mess for Demond Wlliams, who was dropped by his agency after the debacle). And then he jumped on a plane like a jilted ex-lover that’s armed with a few too many resources to beg a quarterback to commit after he essentially “cheated” on said quarterback while the quarterback was on LSU’s campus.

And Kiffin didn’t even have the decency to do it discreetly, as he taunted Tennessee and its entire fan base by tweeting photos of the Knoxville airport.

The whole thing is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen from a college football coach — a desperate act wrapped in immaturity and some choices that border on being unethical.

I mean, the “bromance” is over for Kiffin and Tennessee fans after that. There’s no going back. Kiffin is once again a full-blown villain in Knoxville.

And I take no joy in saying that. I wasn’t rooting against Kiffin at Ole Miss. I even defended him for taking the LSU job. Ultimately, though, I think I got got. I fell for the rehabbed image that ESPN pushed. A lot of us did.

But at the end of the day, the nonsense that was pulled in Knoxville on Friday combined with the one thing I just can’t get past — that Ole Miss started its season with the goal of winning a natty and then Kiffin willingly jumped out of the boat before finishing the journey because he thought about himself before the players — has led me to this: Lane is still the same Lane he’s always been.

And that’s fine. I’m still not rooting against him. If he wins a natty at LSU, good for him. I know that would mean a lot to Kiffin and his family. I’m not preying on his downfall.

But I’m also not going to expect him to take the high road in anything that he does…ever. I’m not holding him to high expectations. Because Kiffin is ultimately going to do what makes Kiffin happy, others be damned. So if you’re one of the others — and if your name isn’t Lane, you’re one of the others — you might as well stay out of the way of the Lane train, you might just get run over while its on its way to its next destination.

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