Sometimes in sports, certain outcomes seem like formalities.
Stephen Curry swishing a 3-pointer. Cristiano Ronaldo scoring from the penalty spot. Most recently, the Philadelphia Eagles' tush push gaining a yard. And when Lane Kiffin leaves a job, things will likely get messy.
Kiffin is one of college football's top coaches. He has won 55 games in six years in Oxford and this season has guided Ole Miss to what is all but certain to be its first College Football Playoff appearance.
There's one problem -- he won't coach in that Playoff. On Saturday, one day after the Rebels beat hated rivals Mississippi State to cap the first 11-win season in program history, news broke that Kiffin will be taking the LSU job after weeks of speculation. Kiffin made it official with a statement Sunday on X. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding is expected to be the "permanent" head coach at Ole Miss, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel, guiding the program through the postseason.
Kiffin has more coaching jobs in the past two decades than many of his counterparts combined. He has been in the Pac-12, NFL, SEC and Conference USA. He has called plays for Nick Saban and Pete Carroll. But among Kiffin's many jobs over the past 20 years, one thing tends to be consistent: When he moves on to the next gig, things aren't especially harmonious.
While the dust is still settling on this latest edition of Kiffin's job changes, it seems all but certain it will go down as another memorable -- and messy -- departure. Here's a brief recap of Kiffin's assorted breakups over the years.
2008, Oakland Raiders: "He conned me"
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who took a faster track to an NFL head coaching gig than Kiffin. Hired by the Raiders at just 31 years old with no head coaching experience at any level, Kiffin was brought to Oakland after two seasons as USC's offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll.
Kiffin's offenses with the Trojans were dominant, but his playcalling prowess didn't translate to the professional level. The Raiders went 5-15 in his first 20 games, and Kiffin was fired during his second season. After the firing, Oakland owner Al Davis discussed the move in a memorable news conference that featured an overhead projector and quotes like "I think he conned me like he conned all you people."
2009, Tennessee: Burnt mattresses
Kiffin landed on his feet pretty quickly after he was fired by the Raiders, eventually being hired by Tennessee just months later.
But Kiffin didn't last long in Knoxville. The Volunteers showed a lot of potential in Kiffin's first season, finishing 7-6 with a solid effort against reigning national champions Florida and a near-upset of eventual national champions Alabama. But Tennessee's promise came with a price -- when Carroll departed from USC at the end of the 2009 season, Kiffin was atop the short list of potential successors.
He took the job with the Trojans. Tennessee objected, with some burning mattresses on campus in protest.
"He told me, 'I wouldn't leave right now. They'll think you're trying to sneak Lane out of the building and will bust all of your windows out,'" longtime Tennessee assistant equipment manager Max Parrott recalled in 2019. "So, I went back inside, waited it out and put out a few more mattresses [that were] on fire."
2013, USC: The tarmac firing ... sort of
At his dream job, Kiffin seemed set to put the chaos behind him. His Trojans squads found some successes, finishing 10-2 with a No. 6 ranking in the final AP Poll in his second season. But when the major hype entering the ensuing campaign didn't translate to further progress -- USC was the preseason No. 1 team in the country and finished 7-6 with an ugly loss in the Sun Bowl -- the pressure began to heighten.
The Trojans started USC's fourth season 3-1. Not perfect, especially after a 10-7 loss to Washington State, but not disastrous either. Then came a 62-41 humiliation on the road against Arizona State. As legend goes, Kiffin was fired on the airport tarmac after the flight back to Los Angeles.
That legend isn't entirely true.
"For complete transparency, it was not the tarmac," USC head of athletics security Rick Carr said in 2023. "It was an office in the terminal."
2017, Alabama: Leaving before the national title game
This Kiffin departure was more awkward than dramatic or explosive. After his firing at USC, Kiffin eventually became Alabama's offensive coordinator under Nick Saban. There, the former coaching wunderkind rediscovered his mojo -- the Crimson Tide dynasty rolled on ... and Kiffin reemerged as a possible head coaching candidate.
At the end of the 2016 season, Kiffin agreed to take over as the head coach at Florida Atlantic. With Alabama in the playoffs, it was expected that Kiffin would start his new gig after the Crimson Tide's run. But the new job seemed to distract Kiffin, who was reportedly late for several meetings and events ahead of Alabama's semifinal win over Washington. Saban announced Kiffin wouldn't be coaching in the national championship days after the Crimson Tide beat the Huskies.
"We made the decision because it was in the best interest of our players, our program and for Lane for him to assume his duties at Florida Atlantic," Saban said of Kiffin's departure. "We mutually agreed that this was best for both programs."