Lane Kiffin reveals what really happened during infamous ‘tarmac firing’ at USC
By Jacob Moss
Published:
It may seem hard to remember now, but there was a point in time not too long ago when current Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin was actually the head coach of the USC Trojans.
Kiffin rather infamously left his first-ever college head coaching gig with the Tennessee Volunteers in 2010 after just 1 season to take the job at USC following the departure of longtime Trojans head coach Pete Carroll to the NFL.
USC had always been Kiffin’s dream job, so when he was offered the chance to take over arguably the best team from the 2000s and shepherd them into the new decade, he didn’t hesitate to make the move out west.
Unfortunately for Kiffin, though, the program he inherited was bogged down by severe NCAA sanctions in the wake of the Reggie Bush scandal, and he was never really able to get things rolling.
This led to Kiffin famously being fired midway through the 2013 season by then-AD Pat Haden. The story goes that Kiffin was actually fired on the tarmac of an airport in LA after getting back from a brutal loss against Arizona State, and he was left behind by the team bus.
In the years since this infamous firing took place, there has been a ton of speculation as to what exactly transpired, but Kiffin himself cleared up some of the confusion during a recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show.
“I wasn’t left on the tarmac,” Kiffin told McAfee. “We landed, and then the AD, in an airport side room, met with me. I was actually on the bus going back to the facility at USC, and he called me in at like 3 a.m. at the private airport there, and that’s where he told me.”
It may not be as juicy as some of the stories that many circulated following Kiffin being let go, but it still had to suck nonetheless. That being said, Kiffin losing his job at USC is what led him to Alabama and Nick Saban, and eventually, to where he is now. So, at the end of the day, it all worked out for him.
