At Home in the Sip

Heading into his sixth season at Ole Miss, head coach Lane Kiffin seems to be more at home in Oxford than ever.

Written by Emily Welly  |  Illustrated by Frank Estrada | Photos Contributed by Ole Miss Athletics

A lot can happen in five years. Just ask Lane Kiffin.

“It’s really been an amazing five years personally and professionally there in Oxford,” he said during his press conference at SEC Football Media Days, held in Atlanta in July.

To be sure, when Kiffin came to Ole Miss, fans were ready for something new. Kiffin has delivered. Here’s how it has played out.

2019

Kiffin was announced as Ole Miss head coach in December 2019. The team was fresh off a 4-8 season that ended with a disappointing Egg Bowl loss in Starkville. With years of coaching experience in college and the pros, Kiffin brought a certain level of fame to the head coach job. He was a bit of an enigma with confidence and swagger and an energetic and somewhat mysterious social media personality.

2020

Although the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on his first season with the Rebels, “The Lane Train” was definitely on the tracks, and Ole Miss fans were ready to get on board. Around this time, Kiffin’s “Come to the ’Sip” campaign for recruiting and crafting a culture for Ole Miss football began to take hold. It has since evolved to also include “Transfer to the ’Sip,” “Party in the ’Sip,” “Drip in the ’Sip” and more. Hype videos with those themes went viral, and Kiffin’s fashion choices began to be closely watched and mimicked.

2021

The team went 10-3. It was the first 10-win regular season in school history that included a perfect 7-0 record at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium; and also included a Sugar Bowl berth. The Oct. 9 52-51 win over Arkansas was named the No. 1 college football game of the season by ESPN.

Bigger picture: In July of 2021, the NIL era began in college football, presenting a whole new challenge for college programs to navigate, especially while balancing the still relatively new transfer portal. Kiffin simultaneously became an expert at using the portal (he’s been called the “Portal King”) while being outspoken against its negative consequences, insisting it needs to be fixed.

2022

Jaxson Dart’s first year on the team. He was part of a highly ranked transfer portal class (hence Kiffin’s “Portal King” title) that included J.J. Pegues, Zach Evans, Ulysses Bentley and several others who went on to play in the NFL.

This was also a debut year for Juice Kiffin: the family dog who has his own presence on the field and on social media. Juice has around 63,000 followers on X and 35,000 on Instagram. He is a regular in the stadium and on the Walk of Champions.

2023

The most winning season in Rebels history. The team went 11-2, with a Peach Bowl win (38-25) over Penn State. Another highlight was a huge (55-49) fourth-quarter comeback win in Oxford against LSU.

2024

Another 10-3 season, with a dominant 52-20 Gator Bowl win over Duke. Led by Dart, the Rebels set new program records in total yards (6,845), yards per play (7.3), passing yards (4,561), passing yards per game (350.8), sacks (52) and tackles for loss (120). The biggest and most memorable win of the year was the 28-10 victory over highly ranked Georgia — after which fans tore down the goals posts and carried them into town.

2025

It remains to be seen what the Ole Miss football team will do on the field this season, but Kiffin spent much of his conference at SEC Football Media Days reflecting on his family.

Kiffin’s daughter Landry is a junior at Ole Miss who can be spotted doing yoga with her dad and impressing fans with her fashion sense on and off the field. His other daughter Presley just started college at USC where she’s playing volleyball. Meanwhile, son Knox and ex-wife Layla recently moved to Oxford from California, and Knox will be a sophomore and quarterback at Oxford High School. Kiffin’s brother Chris (now linebackers coach at Ole Miss) along with his wife and four children also live in Oxford, reportedly right next door to Kiffin.

“Awesome that there are so many Kiffins in Oxford to experience everything together,” he said, reflecting on so much of his family reuniting in Oxford.

He also recently lost two of the people most important to him. Kiffin’s father, Monte, died in July 2024, and his mother, Robin, this past June. Kiffin drew attention at SEC Football Media Days when he showed the inside liner of his jacket, which was custom-made to feature pictures of his dad.

“My guy Mark Shoemake in Oxford made me this jacket, and it’s pictures of my dad and me and all the different places that he coached. It’s pretty awesome,” Kiffin said in an SEC Network interview. 

Losing his parents has further shaped his view of Oxford, he explained in his press conference.

“The people of Oxford, when you lose your parents, and you see how they are and how they helped take care of them towards the end or how much they really cared about them, it just opened my eyes to a totally different way.

“I owe so much to Oxford and the people there. It’s just been awesome.”

Stability at Ole Miss

In the world of NIL and the transfer portal, college football programs struggle to maintain stability in rosters. Kiffin has taken that challenge on with force.

“Like we say in recruiting, you know, you get what you see with us,” he said in his July press conference, adding that the result is fewer players leave Ole Miss for the transfer portal and more are looking to join the Rebels.

However, the program’s success alone has led to a need for recruits — this spring, the most Rebels in school history (eight) were drafted into the NFL.

“I think that the groundwork of these last players over the last few years, what they laid, what they taught the players, has been very beneficial,” Kiffin said.

He also points to stability in the program’s culture and staff for success despite player turnover and a need to restart each fall. This year should continue to build on the past. Notably, the entire staff will return. “To be able to keep our entire staff from last year, that’s very critical,” Kiffin said.