Dottery reunited with Kiffin in “genuine” relationship

By Hunt Palmer

Trust is earned.

In the eyes of most nationally, Lane Kiffin lost that trust when he left Ole Miss prior to the school’s first ever College Football Playoff appearance. Despite TJ Dottery’s being on the roster Kiffin left behind, the coach never lost Dottery’s trust.

In the weeks that followed Ole Miss’s semifinal exit, Dottery rejoined his former coach at LSU.

“If you just listen to the outside noise at the time during the playoffs when he left, I even thought I was going to stay, but like having a real conversation with him once I was able to and my parents talking to him, it was all genuine,” Dottery said. “Even the time when I left Clemson, him just talking a chance on me once he saw the type of person I was and who I was, he was able to see what another genuine person looks like, and it takes one to know one.”

Dottery left Clemson amid troubling circumstances involving a locker room incident. Kiffin called Dottery a victim of the crime and defended the SEC’s leading tackler.

“He has a personal situation that’s been brought up, especially in him transferring, he gets re-brought up in something that he was a victim of,” Kiffin said.

“Something that people don’t talk about this part that the person that did this to him is now in jail and is unable to do that to other people after doing it to a number of people,” Kiffin said in February. “I love that part of his story that he just persevered through that.”

Dottery weighed his option when the portal opened. New Ole Miss coach Pete Golding had been his defensive coordinator and position coach. Chris Kiffin, who joined his brother at LSU, was Dottery’s sideline help as Golding coached the entire defense.

Both destinations offered degrees of familiarity, but LSU won out.

“I honestly felt like this was the best decision for me for a lot of different reasons,” Dottery said. “The major one, for sure, was the scheme on defense being able to just fly around, have fun. Also, the journey to Ole Miss from Clemson, Kiffin giving me the opportunity, and once he got here, everything shook out, him reaching out, I felt like why not go play for the coach who gave me that opportunity when a lot of other coaches didn’t at that time?”

Not only are their familiar faces on the coaching staff, but a huge piece of the Rebel pass rush followed Dottery south. Leading sack man Princewill Umanmielen traded his blue and red for purple and gold.

“We laugh about the transition here all the time because honestly we didn’t talk about this until it actually happened,” Dottery said. “We both end up being here. My decision wasn’t me coming here and getting every guy. This was solely based on me. I didn’t talk to Princewill until he got in the portal because I didn’t want to influence anybody in no way.”

The transition is complete. Now all eyes are on the fall. Both Umanmielen and Dottery insist that there is no rebuild in Baton Rouge. There are expectations.

Most of the coaches and players are learning new surroundings and personalities. Something new arises every day.

The constant for Dottery is trust in his coaches.