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Coach Lane Kiffin
What or who inspired you to become a coach?
My father. I was just always around the game. I remember being
a ball boy, sitting in meetings and seeing how someone who is
not playing the game can impact the outcome of the game. It
was very intriguing to me.
What do you consider your greatest achievement/
accomplishment, and why?
The ability to help take kids places that they can’t take themselves.
It’s motivating them and teaching them. A kid may go
first round while, if he had not come to us, he may have gone
third round. It’s pushing a kid academically so he graduates.
Even he might not realize how important it is until you see him
ten years later and he thanks you for it.
Is there a part of your job that you didn’t anticipate?
Until you become a head coach, you really don’t know everything
that goes with it. As an assistant, I think I understood the
football aspects of becoming a head coach but didn’t realize
everything else–media fans, donors, etc.
What do you love most about Oxford?
The people. From the warm reception at the airport on the first
day, everywhere you go is the excitement which comes with the
SEC and how passionate the fan-base is of all ages.
What is your favorite Ole Miss tradition?
The Grove, from watching it and having experienced it three
times on the other side.
What is your biggest win as a coach?
USC upset Oregon at the end of the 2011 season. Oregon was
probably going to the national championship, and we actually
knocked them out and knocked Alabama in. Coach Saban
never thanked me for that.
Where has been your favorite place to play and why?
Alabama, having been on both sides home and away.
When I went there with Tennessee, I was coming from the
Pac 12 and LA, which has a very late arriving crowd in all
sports. We play at Alabama, and I look in the stands
30 minutes before kickoff and there’s already
90,000 people there.
What is your favorite childhood sports memory?
My dad coaching me. It would be baseball season, and he
would come in his coaching gear from the Vikings. Because it
was the offseason, he had some time. But for him to come over
and find time, as a coach, because obviously he was very busy.
Who would want to go coach more after work? His passion was
unbelievable.
What are your feelings about having more teams in the
national playoffs?
I think they should, just because of the margin of error. I don’t
care who you put on that committee, it’s hard. I think it should be
eight just because there may be a five-seed that really is better
than a one. That would allow, in a year when there is an undefeated
Group of 5 team like UCF, it would allow them to be in
there as one of the eight.
What’s one of the most difficult things being a public
figure, and what is the most rewarding?
Not to complain, but sometimes it can just be overwhelming,
especially in the south. But you understand that and embrace
it over time. And that answers the second part of the question—that
is the passion and how much the fans care and how
important it is to them.
Who is your biggest fan?
My mom.
Hometown CLINTON • 21