Ole Miss assistant makes surprising flip-flop decision

Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss received some surprising news on Thursday. Confirmed by On3’s Matt Zenitz, Kiffin’s brother — Rebels co-defensive coordinator Chris Kiffin — is leaving Ole Miss for a position with the Cleveland Browns.

“Chris Kiffin, who recently left the Cleveland Browns to be his brother Lane’s co-DC and linebackers coach at Ole Miss, is leaving the Rebels and returning to the Browns, a source confirms to @On3sports,” tweeted Zenitz. “First reported by @ClowESPN.”

Moreover, the younger Kiffin — who is 39 years old — served as the defensive line coach for the Browns last season. Prior, Chris Kiffin was the defensive line coach and defensive recruiting coordinator at Ole Miss from 2012-16 under former head coach Hugh Freeze, and was a graduate assistant for the Rebels in 2007.

Last month, it was revealed Chris Kiffin would join the Rebels as their co-defensive coordinator for the 2022 season. However, that’s no longer the case. Instead of coaching with his older brother, Chris Kiffin will be on the sidelines in Cleveland — not Oxford.

Lane Kiffin on his brother Chris Kiffin

Ole Miss needed a new plan at defensive coordinator after former assistant and co-defensive coordinator DJ Durkin left to take over the defense at Texas A&M last month. Shortly after, reports suggested Lane Kiffin would bring on his younger brother, Chris, as a co-defensive coordinator alongside Chris Partridge.

In his National Signing Day press conference, Kiffin detailed why he brought his brother to Ole Miss.

“I think he’s been a lot of places and ran our defense at FAU when we were really good that year,” Kiffin said. “And then went to the NFL since then and learned at a lot of different places, had really good players, so that makes it easy to recruit to. And having been here before when they were really good, I think is good in recruiting for players to know he coached these guys that were here before. So glad for that.”

Eveidently, Kiffin was excited to have his brother Chris Kiffin on his staff at Ole Miss. However, it won’t come to fruition, as Chris Kiffin is returning to the Cleveland Browns in 2022.