Lane Kiffin comments on brother's decision to leave staff

Lane Kiffin’s reunion with his brother Chris was exceptionally brief after the younger Kiffin opted to head to the Cleveland Browns for the 2022 season. The Ole Miss head coach hired Chris Kiffin as his co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in January, but in February, news broke of his return to Cleveland.

Last week, the Rebels leader discussed what went into his brother’s decision to leave Oxford.

“Obviously, it’s unique because it’s your brother, and so, he came back and that happens sometimes,” Kiffin said. “You take jobs at the end of the season and you’re excited about it but then you get there and you kind of have second thoughts.

“It happens with recruits when they sign to schools and it happens with coaches. Kids and adults aren’t a whole lot different. With jobs with salaries and even more with four kids, they’re used to their teams and their friends up there. They were really entrenched there and playing sports, all that stuff, so I get it.”

Chris, who coached at Ole Miss from 2012 to 2017, is now back with the Browns for his third season. Prior to Cleveland, he spend two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. The Kiffins reunited initially at FAU when Chris left Ole Miss to become the defensive coordinator under his brother in 2017.

Without Chris Kiffin, Lane and the Rebels are moving forward with defensive coordinator Chris Partridge. The Ole Miss defense ranked 8th in the SEC in 2021 in scoring defense and 11th in total defense.

Kiffin comments on impact on staff changes to Ole Miss playbook

Meeting with the media last week, Kiffin was asked if the staff changes will make the Rebels look different on either side of the ball – from both a schematic or strategic standpoint.

“Not a whole lot,” Kiffin said. “There’ll be a lot of carryover defensively promoting from within, and Charlie [Weis] on offense having been with us before. I think that’s really good for the players with some changes, but not overhauls. That’s what you should do. You win 10 games and you always want to try to get better and improve and look at new ideas and things, but not totally scratch.

“I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot of difference from the outside.”