Lane Kiffin reveals safety concerns ahead of Ole Miss return as he prepares for fan 'hatred' after quitting to take $91m LSU deal

Lane Kiffin has admitted he is concerned about his safety and expects to be greeted by plenty of 'hatred' when he returns to Ole Miss on Saturday night.

Emotions are bound to run as high as ever in Mississippi's Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when the No. 8 Rebels host the coach who spurned them late last season for a $91 million contract with LSU.

'I guess there's real safety issues and stuff. So, there's people that have a plan for that. It is what it is,' Kiffin, who has led LSU to a 2-0 start, said.

'But I told the players today, man, like, "You don't have anything to worry about as far as, like, attention on you all week. There's just going to be so much attention, hatred - everything - on me."'

'Really, the pressure is on them,' Kiffin continued, alluding to Ole Miss' appearance in last year's national semifinals, and the fact that quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, both viewed as 2026 Heisman Trophy candidates, are back with the Rebels.

'We won seven games last year; they won 13,' Kiffin said. 'They return two Heisman candidates. How often does that ever happen in the same backfield?'

Kiffin helped to develop both Chambliss and Lacy during his five years in Oxford and hopes that, instead of spewing vitriol at him, Mississippi fans would reflect more on how much better off their program was when he left than when he arrived.

Similarly, Kiffin mentioned that he was the one who sought out and hired his Ole Miss successor, Pete Golding, as defensive coordinator in 2023.

'There's not always a winner and a loser,' Kiffin said while referring to his decision to leave for LSU last November, when the Rebels were about to enter the College Football Playoff.

Kiffin pointed out that Saturday's Magnolia Bowl between LSU and Ole Miss will be the first since 1962 to take place when both teams were ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll.

'That says to me it's the most relevant matchup of these two teams in 64 years,' Kiffin continued. 'So, I think that's a really neat thing that we were able to be part of building a program (in Mississippi) that Pete's doing a great job of continuing it as a top-10 program.

'When we got there, they had won four games (in 2019). And when we got here eight months ago, (the Tigers) were 7-6,' Kiffin said. 'So, I think it's a really good thing that I think a lot of people could look at it and say, "Hey, both sides are doing really well, and both sides won."'

There can be only one winner this weekend, and Kiffin acknowledged the novelty of participating in a matchup featuring 'one team that you built and now a new team that you're building - probably a really unusual situation that way.'

And Kiffin figures paranoia is running high within each program because of how much each staff knows about the other.

'I'm sure both places are already worried about leaks within the building getting game plans out,' Kiffin said, perhaps in reference to recent revelations that Ole Miss conducted a sweep of its facility for recording devices after Kiffin left Oxford.

'I know, obviously, a lot's going to be made about me,' Kiffin said. 'But this is about the players being prepared really well and playing really well. I'm not going to tackle anybody. I'm not going to throw any touchdowns.'