'He was brilliant': Lane Kiffin remembers Mike Leach ahead of Egg Bowl
The Egg Bowl means a lot to a lot of people on both sides of the Ole Miss and Mississippi State fan bases but for Lane Kiffin this year’s brings up somber memories of a lost friend.
Thursday marks the first Egg Bowl Kiffin will not be coaching against Mike Leach, who died following last year’s season. His final win as head coach was the Bulldogs Egg Bowl victory over Ole Miss in Oxford.
Kiffin and Leach were friends long before both arrived in Mississippi — during the same offseason — but having the ability to be working together in close proximity again allowed for some memorable moments between the two over the three years.
During Kiffin’s appearance on RebTalk he was asked about Leach and what this week means as he looked back on their friendship.
“(Leach) was an amazing person and always had such great stories,” Kiffin said. “Always enjoyed being around him. I feel like he was kind of brilliant in kind of a different way than maybe the coach speak thing. He was really brilliant in that he could have a system (air raid), run the same system for whatever, 20-30 years, and still work. He came into the SEC and threw for 600 yards on LSU that time.
“Nobody’s done that. Nick Saban on defense, nobody runs the same stuff. Everyone that has lasted this long has evolved and changed and he never did. He had such a great system and had a way to teach it and coach it that nobody could ever figure it out.”
The respect and admiration Kiffin has for Leach is evident every time he would, and does, talk about the late Mississippi State head coach.
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Kiffin is looking for history to repeat itself when Ole Miss travels to Starkville this week.
Thursday marks Kiffin’s second game at Davis-Wade Stadium as the Rebels head coach. Ole Miss won his debut trip in 2021, beating the Bulldogs 31-21 for the program’s first 10-win regular season.
This week presents the opportunity for the Rebels to achieve the same thing, beating Mississippi State to bring the Golden Egg trophy back to Oxford and also secure a 10-win regular season.
Kiffin is the only head coach to reach this benchmark of all the great Ole Miss head coaches that came before him. The moment and historical significance is not lost on him as he was asked about it during Tuesday’s show.
“I have to remind myself, or people do, that say, ‘Hey, finish this game out and that’s two of the last three seasons are 10 regular season (wins),'” Kiffin said. “That’s never been done before. That’s a pretty cool thing to do, not just once but twice. That means you’ve got a lot of guys in your organization doing a lot of really good things. There’s been a lot of great players. Eli Manning was here today at practice, A.J. Brown. All these great players and none of them ever won 10 regular season games means these kids must be doing something good.”
