MARLER: Now the fun begins for Lane Kiffin

By Chris Marler

Lane Kiffin is used to being the bad guy. It’s a role he comfortably carved out for himself for years. 

It’s a role that he quietly slid out of while at Ole Miss. A fun offense, clean lifestyle, and cool powder blue jerseys were apparently better than any PR strategy imaginable to make Kiffin into something he hadn’t been yet – a winner. More importantly, a likable winner. 

After giving an Irish goodbye to the life of being the villain, he returned. Like someone who forgot their keys at home, Kiffin used the same side door he snuck out of and promptly walked back into his villain era the moment he announced he was leaving Oxford for Baton Rouge. 

What happened next shouldn’t have been a surprise, yet it still somehow was. The vitriol, anger, and emotional outbursts from people around Ole Miss and the national media was palpable to say the least. Ole Miss media coined Kiffin as a “hoe,” the fans marked him as a traitor, and the national media openly questioned his motives. 

Maybe all that’s fair, and maybe the lens some of us in Baton Rouge are looking at this through isn’t. Either way, it won’t be the last time his polarizing decisions or personality are brought into the spotlight. For the moment though, all of the chaos should calm down. Finally. 

With Ole Miss’ loss to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, the SEC will once again be left out of the national championship for a third straight year. Friday marks 1,096 days since the SEC last won a national championship. It also marks day one of a new era in the SEC. There are no more games to play, no more pre- and post-game press conferences to deliver, and now everyone is focused on next year. 

Especially Lane Kiffin. 

For the last month and a half, Kiffin has had to live in a world where every motive, decision, and tweet is under a microscope. Now the fun begins though. Everyone is even in the SEC as of today, and the Cinderella revenge run from Ole Miss is over. Friday is truly the first day of the new Lane Kiffin era and everyone is at the same starting line. 

Where they finish this Fall is what’s important, especially in Oxford and Baton Rouge.