College football just saw the real Lane Kiffin after leaked LSU locker room video from halftime against Clemson goes viral
A lot of “noise” follows LSU head coach Lane Kiffin, but one leaked video of his halftime speech during Saturday’s route over Clemson shows a side of Kiffin many have never seen before, and may not see again.
If you haven’t seen the leaked video of Lane Kiffin’s halftime speech against Clemson, you’re in for a treat. LSU is clearly the biggest villain in college football, led by a coach many have vilified as the sport’s ultimate antagonist. But this video pulls back the curtain on who Kiffin truly is as a head coach, and it tells a very different story than the one most people have been sold.
The halftime speech nobody was supposed to see
Now I’ll preface this by saying this is something you’re not supposed to see. It’s a leaked video from a locker room, but it reveals exactly the type of person Kiffin is and exactly why his players and coaches never have a bad word to say about him. Think about what you typically hear about Lane Kiffin from the outside. The noise, the controversy, the social media antics. It’s usually filtered through the media, through other coaches, through contemporaries. But never, or very rarely, do you hear a former player, a coach who worked under him, or somebody who plays for him come out and say they don’t like the guy.
This video is exactly why.
Kiffin walked into that locker room with his team up 31-3 at halftime and ripped into them like they were down 31-3. He told them Clemson was soft, that Clemson didn’t want to be there, that LSU was the better team, that they’d prepared for the past seven to eight months for this moment, that everybody hates them, that it’s them against the world. He used that mentality to lead his team to what became a 40-point victory against a Clemson team that, let’s be honest, might be horrible, but still has a lot of NFL talent on that football field.
Lane Kiffin facts
- Coached at premier programs like USC and Tennessee.
- Was head coach of the Raiders.
- Was OC under Nick Saban at Alabama.
Why this could change the narrative around Kiffin
This was a great look for Lane Kiffin — the kind of footage that turns people in his favor. It’s the same energy you heard from Kirby Smart at halftime of the national championship when that speech got leaked, the same fire you heard from Nick Saban ahead of his national championship game in 2018. These are the speeches, the sentiments, the words and reactions that fire teams up, that fire fan bases up, that turn tides at programs.
This is exactly why LSU chose Lane Kiffin. Despite all of the noise, all of the nonsense, all of everything that comes with Kiffin as a public figure, he went out and waxed the Clemson Tigers on Saturday night. Say what you want about the theatrics, about him being overly excessive on social media last year, about whatever rubs you the wrong way. When the going gets tough, Lane Kiffin is one of the best coaches in college football.
He showed it in this video. He showed it Saturday night. And he’s probably going to show it for the majority of his tenure at LSU.
