Chaos Theory is in full effect again with Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin
By David Wasson
Published:
Upon careful observation, a casual glance at history and frequent attempts at tea-leaf reading from Oxford, Gainesville and Baton Rouge, the current, ever-shifting-and-reforming situation revolving around Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is strikingly similar to what mathematicians call “chaos theory.”
What, you ask? After double-checking to shore up a hazy college memory, chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnection, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals and self-organization.
If that doesn’t describe the current insanity revolving around Kiffin, we aren’t sure what to tell you. Because Kiffin – the chaos master himself throughout pretty much his entire employed adult life – is creating yet another seemingly self-immolating pattern.
In case you lost track trying to keep score, Kiffin is the most sought-after person on Saban’s green earth at the moment. Entire athletic departments and fanbases at Ole Miss, Florida and LSU are simultaneously hyperventilating at their perceived chances of landing the 50-year-old hot yogi/social media influencer who also dabbles in college football coaching.
The problem, we fear, that will result in the combined effect of all this hysteria – either drummed up by the nimble fingers of uber-agent Jimmy Sexton or a more organic groundswell of pent-up glee – is that this will end badly for all but 1 of the involved parties.
Why, again you ask?
Again, chaos theory. Why else would the Family Kiffin be jet-setting on scouting visits to Baton Rouge and Gainesville while the glow of getting to 10-1 by beating the Gators was still fresh?
This has happened before, and over and over again. We saw the result of Kiffin-a-palooza first in Knoxville way back in 2009 – when the recently-deposed Oakland Raiders coach took Tennessee by storm by way of taking wild verbal swipes at Urban Meyer and South Carolina WR Alshon Jeffery. Predictably, the whirlwind that Kiffin kicked up only resulted in a 7-6 record that spectacularly backfired when he bolted Tennessee for USC after just a single season… leaving chaos in his wake.
The same trend happened in Los Angeles, as Kiffin went 8-5 and 10-2 in his first 2 seasons at the helm of the Trojans but then mustered only a 7-6 mark in 2012 after being the preseason No. 1 and was then fired on the tarmac in the middle of the night by USC athletic director Pat Haden just 5 games into the 2013 season.
Chaos, redux.
Kiffin became the most prominent enrollee in the Nick Saban Reclamation Project, getting hired to coordinate Alabama’s offense out of the 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust era it had lived in starting in 2014. And while Kiffin and Saban got along about as often as the Tide lost games, it didn’t take the Alabama boss long to show Kiffin the door in 2017 after he got the FAU head coaching job – and was too busy recruiting future Owls to work on the Crimson Tide’s offensive game plan for the national championship game.
Now that’s chaos at its finest, somehow figuring out a way to screw up a shot at coaching for a second-straight national title ring simply by not properly working out your 2-week notice.
Mercifully, Kiffin’s tenure at FAU came and went without a ton of hullabaloo – which probably led to Ole Miss figuring that Kiffin had matured enough for another shot in the SEC. Not quite… as his dalliance with Auburn in 2022 might have self-destructed the Rebels down the stretch to the tune of 4 losses in their final 5 games.
Which all leads up to 2025 – and peak Kiffin Chaos Theory unfolding in real time. First, Florida shows Billy Napier the door. Next, LSU bids Brian Kelly an abrupt goodbye. And finally, Kiffin’s Rebels are 10-1 with a very real shot at earning a first-round College Football Playoff bye.
That 3-pronged nexus of unlikelihood is swirling around the Mouth of the South himself like an F-5 tornado, all the while the impresario of it all is busily tweeting out daily affirmations and gleefully giving softball “interviews” to Pat McAfee this week while the SEC explodes around him.
This is a pattern, y’all. It doesn’t take multiple upper-level psychology level classes to determine that Kiffin wants this to happen – needs this to happen – to somehow feel appreciated and loved. Once? Maybe. Even twice in a career? OK, perhaps. But over and over and over again?
This will end badly in Baton Rouge and Oxford when Kiffin takes the Florida job. Or it will end badly in Gainesville and Oxford when Kiffin takes the LSU job. Or it will end badly in Baton Rouge and Gainesville when Kiffin stays at Ole Miss.
No matter what happens in the ensuing days and weeks, the only predictable outcome is that Kiffin will make 1 fanbase gleefully happy while simultaneously setting match to gasoline in 2 other football-mad locales.
Voila. Chaos theory.
Who says you can’t learn about deep topics while enjoying college football, right?
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
