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A few former Ole Miss Rebels are obliterating the lane kiffin narratives. We'll explain Locked On LSU. Here we go. You are Locked On LSU, your daily podcast on the LSU Tigers. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Okay, let's get it. It is Locked On LSU, your team every day. I'm your host, Matt Moscona. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandool. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. Get $250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins at thefandool.com to get started. Ever since lane kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU right before their playoff run, we all know what the narrative has been about lane kiffin. He's selfish, leaps his team before the playoffs, all the stuff. All the negative connotations that you would expect. What's interesting is here in the last few days, there's a few guys from that Ole Miss team, you know, the team that lane kiffin, quote unquote, left before the playoff, who are by their actions staunchly defending their coach and combating that narrative. Interesting. It's interesting how fans, media pundits can say what they want, but the people who were actually affected by that decision might be telling a different story. You might have noticed this, but Thursday out at LSU spring practice, Trey Wallace was there. If you don't know who Trey Wallace is, a Trey Wallace was an Ole Miss wide receiver, who's now preparing for the NFL draft. Well, Trey Wallace was at LSU practice. Lane kiffin shared a photo of he, Charlie Weiss Jr. and Trey Wallace at the indoor facility with the caption on the tweet, great to have you down here working out. Hashtag just different. He copied or tagged Trey Wallace there. Let me ask you a question. If Trey Wallace was so disappointed in his coach for leaving his team right before their playoff run, why do you think Trey Wallace would be during spring practice in Baton Rouge, working out at the LSU indoor? Doesn't it stand a reason he might be hanging out at Ole Miss? Hmm. Just so happens that on that very day, T.J. Daughtery met with reporters after practice. So LSU had spring practice on Thursday. And when the practice wrapped up, T.J. Daughtery was one of the three players who met with the media. And he was asked why he picked LSU. You might find this interesting. Talking to my family and a lot of prayer, honestly felt like this was the best decision for me for a lot of different reasons. The major one for sure is scheme on defense, being able to just fly around, have fun. And then also like you talked about with just the journey to Ole Miss from Cleveland, giving me that opportunity. And once he got here and everything shook out, he was reaching out. I felt like why not go play for the coach who gave me my opportunity when a lot of other coaches didn't at that time. The coach who gave me my opportunity when a lot of coaches didn't at that time. And that's why I call T.J. Daughtery began his career at Clemson. He left Clemson transferred to Ole Miss when he changed his last name. When Lane Kiffin got the job at LSU, one of the things that he very staunchly defended with Daughtery is saying that Daughtery was a victim of a crime. The person who committed the crime is actually now in federal prison in Alabama. That's not the narrative that's out there though. And Daughtery went on to talk about Kiffin. He's genuine. One genuine person is going to tell you the truth. But also he just, I respect the way he goes about his business and how he handles himself inside the facility. And then like everybody has fun outside of football and outside of it. But when we're in the facility, it's time to work and get locked in on the main goal. And you can tell he does a great job at that. Genuine. Hmm. I'm not sure there's many Ole Miss fans. Ole Miss administrators, boosters, national media members who might describe Lane Kiffin as genuine. But there's a guy who played for him at Ole Miss, followed him from Ole Miss to LSU, calling him a genuine. On the same day that another player from Ole Miss was at LSU's facility working out before the combine or before the draft, why wouldn't he be in Oxford? I don't know. One more by the way from TJ Daughtery. When he was asked if he felt Lane Kiffin might be misunderstood. A thousand percent. And that also goes into my decision. Like if you just listen from the outside noise at the time during the playoffs when he leaves, everybody, I even thought I was going to stay. But like having a real conversation with him once I was able to and my parents talking to him like it was all genuine. And even in the time when I left Clemson and got there, like him just taking a chance on me once he saw the type of person I was and who I was. Like he was able to see what another genuine person looks like and it takes one to know one. Genuine, misunderstood. A lot of words and phrases there that may not jive with the narrative is especially because earlier in spring, in turn, that Chambliss made some comments. And we talked about it here on the show. If you're in every day or you heard this, we talked about it. But Chambliss was asked earlier in spring to compare Lane Kiffin and new Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding. And this, by the way, this is how narratives start to get spun. So I'm going to play for you what Chambliss said just a couple of weeks ago during Ole Miss spring practice, right? So he's won his waivers. He's going through spring with Ole Miss. He's going to play for Ole Miss in 2026, all that stuff. So Pete Golding is now the coach. Hey, Trinidad, what's the difference between Lane Kiffin and Pete Golding? Just the personalities are a little different than our old coach and coach Golding. I'd say he's more of like a team guy. And we really value his leadership, whatever he says. He's kind of showing you faster than I could tell you. He leads by his actions and, you know, we really appreciate that. He's a team guy. He'll show you faster than I can tell you, leads by his actions rather than the old coach didn't say him by name. But that's a fun, that's a fun narrative to spin there. So let me go back again if you're in every day or you'll remember this, but Trinidad Chambliss, the week that Ole Miss was set to play two Lane in the college football playoff, mind you. Okay. At this point, Lane Kiffin is, this is December. Lane Kiffin has already left Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin is at LSU getting prepared for the portal. He has left Ole Miss and Ole Miss makes the college football playoff. They're getting ready to play two Lane. So this is Trinidad Chambliss a few days before Ole Miss plays two Lane in the college football playoff. And at this point, the word is Chambliss is likely to follow Lane Kiffin to LSU, which he was, by the way, he was coming. And so Chambliss was asked about that. Hey, if you're granted another year of eligibility, you, you coming back to Ole Miss? I would have to consider like what the best situation is for me, what I feel more comfortable with, who I trust the most. And I'm just going to feel for, you know, every, every possibility really. So that just, there's a lot that goes into that. Huh. So a few days before the playoff, Trinidad Chambliss would not commit to coming back to Ole Miss. And now that he's gone through the waiver process and all that, and he's back at Ole Miss. Now it's, oh, our coach leads by actions. He's a team guy, unlike the former coach. The former coach, you were going to follow at LSU. See the bottom line is Trinidad Chambliss, Kee-1 Lacey, Deuce Wallace, Alden, they were all coming to LSU, all of them. And then Ole Miss beat Georgia, which nobody thought they would. Congrats to them. Hell of a game. It was phenomenal theater. Terrible for LSU because that was the plan. Those guys were all coming to LSU and they beat Georgia. They kept playing. The portal opened and LSU had to pivot. That's what it was. And naturally also, if you're Trinidad Chambliss, do you really want to risk your legacy? It'll miss all the, a lot of factors changed. And so did the narrative internally from those players. But the bottom line is action speak louder than words. And Trinidad Chambliss, a few days before LSU, excuse me, a few days before Ole Miss played in the college football playoff, had an opportunity to say, if I get another year, I'm coming back. Didn't say it. Now, now, because he's pot committed to Ole Miss, it's all about Pete Golding and Lane Kiffin was, you know, Pete Golding's a team guy and his actions, leads by actions more so than the old coach, the former coach. But Chambliss told you the story before they played too late. And do Swalas told you the story by being at LSU this week, preparing for the draft with his former coaches. And TJ Daughtery, who left Ole Miss to follow his coaches here, tells you the story as well. There's a way that I can simplify this to make it make sense for literally everyone. And I'm going to do that when we come back. It's locked in LSU, your team every day. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters. Every matchup is magnified. Every game can swing a series. And right now, FanDuel is giving new customers a great way to get in on the action. So here's what I like about it. You can bet just $5, get 250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. 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The lake helps keep tigers ready to compete every game, every series, every postseason run. And that same level of championship care is here for you too. Whether it's sports medicine, heart care, pediatrics, or help getting back to your everyday routine. Our Lady of the Lake cares for everyday champions across Louisiana. Trust the team that cares for the team you love. Our Lady of the Lake and LSU together, we roar. Learn more at o-l-o-l-r-m-c.com slash LSU. Get back to the convo here in just a quick second, but I do want to remind you, you can get locked on LSU at free with the everyday Air Club plus members only discord access. So join at the link in the show notes. I told you that I could make this whole conversation about Lane Kiffin relevant for everybody. Even if you don't know Lane Kiffin, you didn't play for Lane Kiffin or anything. The way that I would argue this is every single one of us, you, me, all of us, we all went to school somewhere. And we all had a favorite teacher. If I asked you right now, just close your eyes. Don't do it if you're driving, but think about wherever you went to school, elementary, middle school, high school, college, whatever. Who was your favorite teacher? Who comes to mind first? Your favorite teacher, most impactful person on your life. Somebody came to your mind. Now, I would also bet that if you went and polled every one of your classmates or everyone in your school, you could find somebody that hated that teacher. The person you love, the person that was most influential in your life. Think about it. If you're a teacher and you have 30 students in a class and you have seven classes per year, that's over 200 students a year. Let's say you teach for 20, 30 years. You're talking about thousands of students over the course of your career, thousands. You're going to find in that sample, people that love you and people that hate you. The same is true with coaches and it's undeniable. Remove your emotion about laying kiffin in this conversation to look at Brian Kelly. Brian Kelly was a very polarizing figure. It didn't end well. So a lot of LSU fans are dog piling on Brian Kelly. However, if you go look at when he got fired, you can find people like Garrett Nussmeyer, Colin Hurley, a lot of Whit Weeks, a lot of people who will laud Brian Kelly. Praise him for the job he did at LSU, the role he played in their development, bringing them to LSU, so on. Similarly, you can find people who don't like Brian Kelly. And that's true with every single coach anywhere, ever in any sport at any level. If you are someone in a position of authority, it is undeniable. You will find people that love you and you will find people that don't love you or hated you if you want to use that strong of a term. So too is it true with Lane Kiffin. He created a lightning rod situation when he left Ole Miss and there's a lot of people at Ole Miss that will always and forever be mad at Lane Kiffin that he left, when he left, how he left, for whom he left, all of it. But there's nobody more impacted by that than the players. And you still have players that respect, love and revere him. And coaches, by the way, who followed him to LSU. So all this to say, if you want to convince yourself, and I know this, I just know this for a fact, because I've watched this show grow over the last four months. And there's so many of you that are Ole Miss fans that found this show during all the Kiffin saga because I was right. I was right. There was nobody that was more accurate reporting that story than me, period. Nobody. And so a lot of you found the show then and you've continued to come back, whether you hate, listen or watch, and that's fine. Why ever you're here, I'm glad you are, sincerely. But a lot of you will detest Lane Kiffin forever, and I don't blame you. Like, I get it. I don't agree with it, but I get it. I get the understanding of the emotion. LSU went through a similar, not exactly the same, but similar thing with Nick Saban, you know, 20 years ago. But the bottom line is the narratives that are being spun about Lane Kiffin. If you want to cherry pick it and prop it up, you can find people that will support that narrative. But if you actually care to, you can find people who will argue to the contrary. People like T.J. Daughtery. People like... People like, you know, Harrison Wallace, Trey Wallace. People like Trinidad Chambliss, even who doesn't want to say it now. People like Winnie Watkins. People like Prince Willoughman Miellen, who followed their coach to LSU. People like Charlie Weiss, Kevin Smith, Sawyer Jordan. Go down the list of people that followed Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss to Baton Rouge. Not everybody, but enough did. To at least tell another side of the story, another side of that narrative that's being spun about Lane Kiffin. Now ultimately the bottom line is Lane Kiffin's got to go win football games. And he's been paid a lot of money and he's been given a lot of resources with the expectation to go win championships at LSU. And his tenure here will be defined by that. But anyone trying to suggest that there is this sort of unanimous opinion about Lane Kiffin that's negative? Clearly, evidence suggests the other. All right. It is locked on LSU. Now, Lane Kiffin is getting his team ready for the remainder of spring and his first season in Baton Rouge. There's a lot of work to do, including on the running game, which he talked about. I want to get to that as we continue here. It is locked on LSU, your team every day. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment. 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Next pledge is a 12-month fixed-term trucker tariff with variable rates lower than off-chance price cap for standard variable tariffs. Direct debit required. Teas and seas apply. So one thing that Lane Kiffin undeniably has got to improve upon is LSU's running game. We all know it. A year ago, LSU was 124th in America running the football. Absolutely atrocious. If you're unaware, there are 134 teams at Play College football. LSU was 124th in rushing offense. So they got to be better there and Lane Kiffin knows it. That's a really high on our list. Very big challenge to get that fixed. And that takes a lot of things. It's a system thing. It's a personnel thing. And so, you know, getting here and going to work on that. I just don't think if you can't, you know, in my opinion, you can't run the ball. You got problems, not just offensively, but as a team. It's just part of your personality. So we've always really stressed that. Over time, we've run the ball as well as anybody over the years. The last two places we've been. So, and it's looked different with different types of running backs. So that's a really big challenge for us right now, like you alluded to, major issue last year and really for a few years here. And so that's high on our list because it sets up everything. Everybody knows that sets up throwing the ball and play action. But to me, it sets your whole team up. Two things Lane Kiffin mentioned there with running the football system and personnel. The system, I think is undeniable. Like, for example, I mentioned LSU was 124th in the country this past year in rushing offense. Ole Miss was 44th. Now that may not seem like, by the way, Ole Miss was second in the country in total offense. They were 44th in rushing, but that's still outstanding considering Q1 Lacey was a 1500 yard rusher. But just for some context here, if you look at the college football playoff teams, James Madison was sixth in the country in rushing offense. Indiana, the national championship was the national champion was 12th. Oregon made the playoff. They were 20th in rushing offense. Texas A&M was 30th. Texas Tech was 33rd. Georgia was 35th. You get the point, like there's plenty of teams. Ole Miss, as I mentioned, was 44th in rushing offense. All that to say, when we talked about the defensive statistics of college football playoff teams a year ago, 10 of the 12 college football playoff teams were in the top 18 in total defense. The two outliers were Ole Miss and Tulane. Ole Miss was four in the 40s, and Tulane was 80th. So those are the exceptions. So you have to be competent running the football. You don't have to be dominant running the football, I think, is the important part. But every year that Lane Kiffin was at Ole Miss, they had success running the football. The really interesting thing, however, is how much he ran the quarterback, because this isn't an offense where they generally have a running back by committee. For example, last year, Kiwan Lacey had 306 rushing attempts. The next leading rusher was Trinidad Chambliss with 133 rushing attempts. Go back to 2024. Henry Parrish 130 attempts. Jackson Dart, 124. Go back to 2023. Quinchon Jutkin's 271 attempts. The next leading rusher, Jackson Dart, 119. Now, Ulysses Bentley had 95 rushing attempts. But the point being you have one bell cow primarily, and then you have a quarterback. Now, there's a couple of outlier years. 2022 Jutkin's ran 274 times. Zach Evans 144 and then Dart 128. Still a heavy load on the quarterback running the football. That is what we're talking about with system. System, there's one year that's the outlier. And it was 2021, Kiffin's second year at Ole Miss. When Jerry-Anne Ealy had 133 attempts, Snoop Kotter had 130, Henry Parrish had 105. But the leading rusher as far as attempts was the quarterback McRowth 152, which had four players, including the quarterback, over 100 rushing attempts. But that was an outlier. By and large, the way Kiffin runs his system is you have a bell cow plus the quarterback. So that's likely what we're going to see at LSU, which is a matter of who is that bell cow, how effective can the quarterback be? So system was one. The other thing you mentioned was personnel. And I do think the personnel component of this is fascinating because you can look at Harlem Berry and Caden Durham, Dylan Jones coming in from Wisconsin. You can look at all the transfers from Stacey Gage and all of the transfers that have come in in this portal class for LSU. And you can look at the fact that they don't have a lot of skins on the wall. This is the thing that is the major hat tip to Lane Kiffin in this system. Key won Lacey this past year at Ole Miss ran for 1,567 yards. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry and scored 24 touchdowns. Y'all, 1,500 rushing yards. SEC is leading rusher, all SEC, all American. Okay. In his freshman season at Missouri, remember that was only Key won Lacey's second year in college football. In 2024, Missouri, Key won Lacey carried the ball 23 times for 104 yards. He went from 23 rushes for 104 at Missouri to an all American in this offense. I'm not trying to downplay Key won Lacey 5, 11, 200 pounds. And he had an outstanding season this past year at Ole Miss. But if you're going to try to convince me that Key won Lacey was this can't miss prospect that everybody had to have, just not the case. He was a lightly regarded guy, went to Missouri, didn't really have a productive season, but Lane Kiffin looked and went, I know what to do with that and look what happened. The expectation is he'll do the same at LSU in 2026 to fix a running game that has been anemic the past two years. If he does that and you have the elite defense as we discussed, which we're expecting, they will under Blake Baker. All you need is a healthy quarterback to guide that ship and they'll be on their way. Okay. That's going to do it for us here on today's episode of a locked on LSU. Thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for making us your first listen. If you are listening on podcast, please subscribe on your favorite podcast app, Radis, leave a review. If you're on YouTube, smash that like button, subscribe to the channel and hit the bell so you're notified whenever we post a new video. And be sure to let a friend know that if they love the Tigers, we got to your every single day for locked on LSU. It's your team every day. Satisfy those savings cravings. Check out our full range of tailored energy solutions at eonnext.com forward slash save. Eonnext, we make energy savings work. 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