As victims go, Lane Kiffin doesn’t seem like one.

He could have stayed at Ole Miss, made over $10 million a year, led his 11-1 team into a home playoff game and become an icon at a place where he supposedly found personal tranquility. Or he could’ve left for LSU to make over $10 million a year leading a program that has won three national titles this century.

Fortunate would be one description of such a fork in life’s road. The result of endless work and talent would be another.

But apparently no one knows a man’s burdens until they’ve walked a mile in his hot yoga pants.

Per his resignation statement on social media, it was spiritual, familial and mentor guidance that led Kiffin to go to LSU, not all those five-star recruits in New Orleans.

“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” he wrote.

In an interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith, Kiffin noted “my heart was [at Ole Miss], but I talked to some mentors, Coach [Pete] Carroll, Coach [Nick] Saban. Especially when Coach Carroll said, ‘Your dad would tell you to go. Take the shot.'” Kiffin later added: “I talked to God, and he told me it’s time to take a new step.”

After following everyone else’s advice, Kiffin discovered those mean folks at Ole Miss wouldn’t let him keep coaching the Rebels through the College Football Playoff on account of the fact Kiffin was now, you know, the coach of rival LSU.

Apparently quitting means different things to different people. Shame on Ole Miss for having some self-esteem.

“I was hoping to complete a historic six-season run … ,” Kiffin said. “My request to do so was denied by [Rebels athletic director] Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”

Well, if he hoped enough, Kiffin could have just stayed and done it. He didn’t. Trying to paint this as an Ole Miss decision, not a Lane Kiffin decision, is absurd. You are either in or you are out.

Leaving was Kiffin’s right, of course. He chose what he believes are greener pastures. It might work out; LSU, despite its political dysfunction, is a great place to coach ball.

Kiffin should have just put out a statement saying his dream is to win a national title, and as good as Ole Miss has become, he thinks his chance to do it is so much better at LSU that it was worth giving up on his current players, who formed his best and, really, first nationally relevant team.

At least it would be his honest opinion.

Lately, 50-year-old Kiffin has done all he can to paint himself as a more mature version of a once immature person. In the end, though, he is who he is. That includes traits that make him a very talented football coach. He is unique.

He might never live down being known as the coach who bailed on a title contender. It’s his life, though. It’s his reputation.

One of college sports’ original sins was turning playcallers into life-changers. Yeah, that can happen, boys can become men. A coach’s job is to win, though.

A great coach doesn’t have to be loyal or thoughtful or an example of how life should be lived.

This is the dichotomy of what you get when you hire Kiffin. He was on a heater in Oxford, winning in a way he never did with USC or Tennessee or the Oakland Raiders.

That seemingly should continue at resource-rich LSU. Along the way, you get a colorful circus, a wrestling character with a whistle, a high-wire act that could always break bad. It rarely ends well — from airport firings to near-riot-inducing resignations to an exasperated Nick Saban.

LSU should just embrace it — the good and the not so good. What’s more fun than being the villain? Kiffin might be a problem child, but he’s your problem child. It will probably get you a few more victories on Saturdays. He will certainly get you a few more laughs on social media.

It worked for Ole Miss, at least until it didn’t. Then the Rebels had to finally push him aside. This is Lane Kiffin. You can hardly trust him in the good times.

If anything, Carter had been too nice. He probably should have demanded Kiffin pledge his allegiance weeks back, after Kiffin’s family visited Gainesville, Florida, as well as Baton Rouge.

Instead, Kiffin hemmed and hawed and extended the soap opera, gaining leverage along the way.

Blame was thrown on the “calendar,” even though it was coaches such as Kiffin who created it. And leaving a championship contender is an individual choice that no one else is making.

Blame was put on Ole Miss, as if it should just accept desperate second-class hostage status. Better to promote defensive coordinator Pete Golding and try to win with the people who want to be there.

To Kiffin, the idea of winning is seemingly all that matters. Not necessarily winning, but the idea of winning. Potential playoff teams count for more than current ones. Tomorrow means more than today. Next is better than now.

Maybe that mindset is what got him here, got him all these incredible opportunities, including his new one at LSU, where he must believe he is going to win national title after national title.

So go do that, unapologetically. Own it. Own the decision. Own the quitting. Own the fallout. Everything is possible in Baton Rouge, just not the Victim Lane act.

The Penn State coaching search, which has gone quiet in the past few weeks, has focused on BYU coach Kalani Sitake, sources told ESPN on Monday.

The sides have been in discussions, but sources cautioned that no deal has been signed yet. The sides have met, and there is mutual interest, with discussions involving staffing and other details of Sitake’s possible tenure in State College.

No. 11 BYU plays Saturday against No. 5 Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, with the winner securing an automatic bid in the College Football Playoff. On3 first reported Sitake as Penn State’s top target.

Sitake has been BYU’s coach since 2016, winning more than 65% of his games. He guided BYU to an 11-2 mark in 2024, and the Cougars are 11-1 this year. This is BYU’s third season in the Big 12, and the transition to becoming one of the league’s top teams has been nearly instant.

Penn State officials were active early in their coaching search, which included numerous in-person meetings around the country. That activity has quieted in recent weeks, sources said, even as candidates got new jobs and others received new contracts to stay at their schools.

BYU officials have been aggressive in trying to retain Sitake, according to sources, and consider it the athletic department’s top priority.

BYU plays a style that’s familiar to the Big Ten, with rugged linemen and a power game that’s complemented by a creative passing offense in recent years.

This week, Sitake called the reports linking him to jobs “a good sign” because it means “things are going well for us.”

James Franklin was fired by Penn State in October after going 104-45 over 12 seasons. Franklin’s departure came after three straight losses to open league play. He led Penn State to the College Football Playoff semifinals in January 2025.

Sitake has won at least 10 games in four of his past six seasons at BYU. After going 2-7 in conference play while adjusting to the Big 12 in 2023, BYU has gone 15-3 the past two years and found a quarterback of the future in true freshman Bear Bachmeier.

Sitake has no coaching experience east of the Mountain Time Zone. He was an assistant coach at BYU, Oregon State, Utah, Southern Utah and Eastern Arizona.

Sitake, who played high school football in Missouri, played at BYU before signing with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2001.

He is BYU’s fourth head coach since his mentor, LaVell Edwards, took over in 1972.

PHILADELPHIA — Sidney Crosby says, no, of course he has not heard from Mario Lemieux recently as the current Penguins captain moves closer to taking another franchise record from his mentor.

Crosby is seven shy of Lemieux for the most regular-season points with the Penguins. He already holds the team record for regular and postseason points combined.

Heck, play Philadelphia a few more times each season, and Crosby could have shattered the record years ago.

Crosby scored his 58th and 59th career goals against the Flyers on Monday night. His continued excellence in the cross-state rivalry helped lead the Penguins to a 5-1 win.

Crosby, who has 18 goals this season, has dominated the Flyers like no other visiting player has done in Philadelphia’s franchise history. He has 59 goals and 137 points in 92 games against Philadelphia, the most in both categories any opponent has ever put up on the Flyers.

The 38-year-old Crosby has 1,716 career points, close to eclipsing Lemieux’s 1,723 for most in franchise history. Lemieux owned the team when Crosby captained the Penguins to championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017.

Lemieux seems to be saving his well-wishes for when the record ultimately falls.

“I’m sure he knows me well enough to know that’s not something I really want to talk about it,” Crosby said. “Just go out there and play. If it happens, it happens.”

It will happen. Soon.

Crosby is in the thick of the hunt for the NHL goals lead. Colorado‘s Nathan MacKinnon and Boston‘s Morgan Geekie each have 20.

The Flyers promoted the game all night as a Keystone Rivalry game but the series — even as fans voraciously booed Crosby with each touch — has never been much of a rivalry. Crosby has won three Stanley Cup titles while the Flyers have won only two in franchise history, in 1974 and 1975. Crosby wasn’t even born until 1987.

“It’s always been a rivalry, long before I played here,” Crosby said. “These games, you always know there’s a little more intensity, a little more to them. You just try to prepare accordingly. I just tried to get ready like everyone else.”

Crosby has never played like everyone else. He did enough damage to snap the Flyers’ modest three-game winning streak — and help Pittsburgh rebound from a 7-2 loss to Toronto.

“When you have a game like that, you just want to respond, regardless of who you’re playing,” Crosby said.

Crosby scored to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead — his 60th career road game-opening goal — and added a wrist shot through traffic on the power play for a 2-1 lead in the second period.

The Penguins were one of the early surprises of the NHL season until a stretch of seven losses in nine games in November. The team considered a long shot to reach the playoffs when the season began — only Chicago and San Jose faced slimmer odds of hoisting the Stanley Cup — has since tumbled from the top spot in the Metropolitan Division it held a month into the season.

The perpetually rebuilding Flyers and Penguins are tied with 31 points apiece.

Crosby at least gives Penguins and NHL fans a reason to watch — his No. 87 jersey was spotted around the concourse more than any Flyer — and chasing Lemieux can spice up an otherwise dead zone in the schedule. Even his teammates, who watch him practice and play on the daily, remain in awe of Crosby.

“It shows you what kind of exceptional player and person that he is, to never be satisfied with anything,” said Bryan Rust, who had a goal and two assists in the victory over the Flyers. “Everything he’s done at a team level, at an individual level, on and off the ice. It’d be easy to kind of start to pull back the reins a little bit, but I think it’s almost like it’s almost fueling him a little bit more to get more and more.”