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EYEWEAR USED TO be a kind of prison until glasses became cool. Around the time jocks who never needed prescriptions began flaunting designer frames as a declaration of style. Which was long after Eli Drinkwitz had been memorialized in pictures from his adolescence, dorked-out in big, round lenses he inherited from his older brother, Jeremy. The head football coach of the Missouri Tigers has been the victim of lousy vision his whole life, and in his early 40s now seems the kind of glasses-wearer who forsakes image in favor of comfort. His current pair being a good example: soft rectangular lenses with practically invisible frames.

Only it turns out that Drink doesn’t like his glasses at all. He doesn’t like how they make him look on the field. He doesn’t like how they make him look in the locker room. He doesn’t like that they feed into a perception straight out of the 1950s that people think he’s a nerd. Even though he has described himself publicly as “a 5-10 dorky white dude” and, in his first year, when the Tigers upset LSU, said aloud, “Let’s be honest, I have no business being a head coach.” Within him seems to be a more ambitious evaluation of himself and what he can achieve, that he can actually take Mizzou somewhere it has never been before in football: to an SEC championship or — also his words — to the College Football Playoff. And maybe his glasses muddle in his appearance the sort of aggression such winning seems to demand.

I LIKE THE guy. When he was introduced nearly five years ago and made his first public appearance with his wife and four daughters at the ceremony in Columbia, Marching Mizzou played the fight song to lead him through a shroud of fake smoke and he walked onto Faurot Field swiveling his head to look around. He stepped in front of the microphone and pulled a visor over his eyes and then took off his glasses, in a little preview of how he would curate his appearance on the sideline. Then he set them onto the podium for a minute before putting them back on so he could see the pages of a prepared speech. He said, “For me, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.” He mentioned Gary Pinkel, Mizzou’s most successful modern coach, who was in the audience. Drink was in such stark physical contrast to him and every other Missouri coach who came before that I — someone who never played football but has worn glasses since kindergarten — told my friends I could get behind what he was doing, before he said a word.

There was some of that outward self-deprecation mingled with the confidence to employ it. He purposefully pronounced the correct “Missour-ee” and then said “MizzurUH,” too, as a nod to the people like my dad who had grown up in the Show Me State yet mispronounced it his entire life. He had not only the semblance of a personality but also a kind of panache (the nickname of Faurot Field is The Zou, and he joked that going anywhere around Columbia with four young daughters, people would get to see the real zoo). He giggled when he slipped up in saying he wanted to “win the Sun Belt … uhh, sorry, the SEC East!” But his elocution was that of someone with an easy way about himself. He barely had a track record as a head coach, but he was 12-1 the previous year at Appalachian State, including wins at South Carolina and North Carolina.

As a Mizzou graduate and native of the Bootheel, I was fascinated by this person, this seemingly new type of coach for a program in need of a risk. And that was before he made fun of Kansas and Arkansas. Before he made fun of Dan Mullen by pulling his hoodie over his head and a light saber from behind the lectern after Mizzou beat the Gators and he said, “May the force be with you” and then took a sip of Diet Coke like a mic drop. That was before Mizzou went 11-2 last season and beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl and Drinkwitz became the unapologetic driver of a black-and-gold Maybach with rims.

Last August, the X account CFBTalkDaily asked college football fans to reply to a post with “One word to describe Eli Drinkwitz.” The picture they used showed Drink on the field in the middle of action, staring from under his visor. Some answers: Coach. Aura. Mid. Dork. Leader! Savior. King. Dork but we LOVE him in CoMo, it’s just part of his charm! Different. Smart. Strange.

Drink’s Tigers are 6-1 and wobble at 21 in the AP poll. Early this season the offense has struggled — it was supposed to be one of the best in the SEC, with veteran quarterback Brady Cook throwing to Luther Burden III, touted as one of the top players in college football after catching 86 passes for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns last season. But then Boston College gave them a scare at home and Vanderbilt took them to OT, and they were defenestrated at Texas A&M, which cost Mizzou dearly in the respect department. The Vanderbilt win certainly looks better now than it did at the time, of course. The Commodores took down Alabama, who lost again last weekend to Tennessee. But the Tide remain firm in the sporting consciousness as a juggernaut, and juggernauts tend to get the benefit of the doubt. If Missouri is to beat them, Burden, who has yet to live up to those lofty expectations (partly because Mizzou has trouble getting him the ball), will have to come alive. Missouri’s defense looks good in statistical departments — ninth in the country in yards allowed and top 10 in both pass and scoring defense — but has given up a bunch of broken and big plays such as a 75-yard TD run to Texas A&M’s Le’Veon Moss that opened the third quarter and essentially buried the game at 31-0. The defense will have to have the type of game it played against Murray State and Buffalo to start the season.

Drink tells me he remembers unfondly when glasses used to be considered a weakness. “That was tough, growing up,” he says. “Those were some bad glasses. I guess I thought they were cool.” A literal magnification of his shortcomings when he was a teenager in west Arkansas, a diminutive linebacker playing football for a team that won two state championships at Alma High School in a town with a population smaller than its 6,200-seat stadium. When the Drinkwitz family crammed itself — two parents and six kids — into a doublewide trailer. When his haircut was doing him no favors, either.

“I think what Coach Drink represents, man, is that you can be who you are,” says Mizzou assistant head coach and cornerbacks coach Al Pogue, who has known Drink since they were in their 20s and in quality control at Auburn under offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn. “And if that person is lighthearted and [can] still be successful? He represents that. It’s OK to be who you are.” He is referring to instances when Drink leads off a team meeting with a dad joke. Or burbles, “That’s what she said” after an innocuous comment in the hallway because he can’t seem to help himself. When he hosts a get-together for coaches every Wednesday night over the fire pit in his backyard over Wendy’s hamburgers as part of a communion. When he tells coaches to come in later if they need to take their kids to school. “That’s something I had to learn. I thought I had to look mean. I thought I had to stand on the sideline always looking like I was angry. But I wasn’t really that person,” Pogue says. “If everyone says, ‘Hey, he is a nerd’ … well, that’s a guy who I want to be like.”

DRINK TAKES HIS glasses off before football games. Everyone calls him Drink, or Coach Drink; it’s what he seems to prefer. When the meetings and preparations end and there is no turning back before kickoff, he suctions contacts onto his eyeballs and stands before his coaches and players. As a head coach who never played college football (though he was class president at Arkansas Tech) he has been subject to scrutiny — if, for example, he doesn’t call a timeout and gets a delay penalty that backs his team up 5 yards against Kansas State at the end of the game, or gets blasted so badly at Texas A&M that it doesn’t even seem he was prepared.

It’s fairly easy to understand why one of the youngest Division I head coaches of an ascending team in the greatest football conference might project himself at his best, at his strongest, at his most commanding, by subtracting a perception of his vulnerability.

Drink has done a lot of celebrating at Missouri without his glasses. His most viral speeches about brotherhood and rallying cries and buzzwords such as “STP: something to prove” have been summoned with the team crowded around him, without the specs. He conducts his postgame news conferences without them. He knelt without them and rolled over onto his back in his droopy white T-shirt and chinos and flapped his arms and legs after Mizzou — with a smothering effort from a defense that lost five starters to the NFL and a huge pass from Cook to Burden in the fourth quarter, beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl — and he made angels out of the confetti on the fake green heaven of Jerry Jones’ field.

He goes back to them Sunday morning. For church or breakfast at Cafe Berlin in Columbia with his family, when a new week of football begins. When he is back on the fourth floor of the Mizzou South End Zone complex before anyone else arrives in the morning, with a life-size cardboard cutout of him taking a drink of Diet Coke in the hall, and “SOMETHING TO PROVE” written in gigantic letters down the hallway wall, taking out of his personalized Coach Drink mini-fridge his first of eight or nine 16-ounce Diet Coke bottles for the day.

“I tell people all the time, ‘Don’t let the glasses fool you,'” he says. “I think sometimes, for me, I’m perceived either more nerdy than I really am, or maybe not as masculine. And I think I’m just trying to make sure when I’m out there proving a point, I want people to really understand me, you know? It’s kinda like Superman. He had to take his glasses off to get after people.”

HE’S WEARING THEM in the evening. He sidles down the stairwell from the private room of donors at Chicken N Pickle, a Mizzou-friendly restaurant on the banks of the Missouri River in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, where he has been taking pictures with fans all evening and glad-handing for help with Every True Tiger, the branding and NIL agency of Mizzou athletics, and a new $250 million addition to the football stadium that will enclose the North End Zone and hopefully entomb the program’s tortured past there. Hundreds of fans have gathered to hear him speak publicly for the first time since beating Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, where he trumpeted a war cry on the victor’s stage, “We’re not blue bloods, we’re a dirty, hardworking brotherhood … M-I-Z!”

On this night, Drink could pass as a fan in the restaurant, so it’s hard to spot him at first. His brown hair is combed to the side and his long-sleeve shirt is tucked into black chinos as he stands off in the corner at various points, constantly checking his phone. He lacks any kind of security buffer or coterie to lead him through the crowd of Bud Light drinkers and nachos eaters, of kids with plush hats with tiger tails dangling from the ears shaking pom-poms, of Truman the Tiger standing by the side of a stage giving a curtsy to the coach, of older men and women in various shades of black and gold as hopeful for 2024 as for any season in the past. The dimples embedded into Drinkwitz’s freshly shaved face make him look younger than 41, the face of this now-relevant but historically misbegotten team.

Twice in my lifetime, in 2007 and 2013, Missouri was a half away from the national championship game. This was under Pinkel, the stoic former tight end who seemed to withhold any sense of humor but made up for his lack of personality by taking Missouri all the way to No. 1. But the Tigers lost in the 2007 Big 12 championship game when Sam Bradford and Oklahoma pulled away in the second half after a Chase Daniel interception, and in the 2013 SEC title showdown Malzahn and what seemed like an Auburn team of destiny road-graded Mizzou in the fourth quarter, for which I was, sadly, present. Both those nights spun endlessly nowhere after the final whistle for a childhood fan, for a native of the state, someone who understood the precedent of finally seeing the team at the threshold but unable to cross. Walking back to a car under a black sky that might as well have let history whisper through: Missouri wasn’t and isn’t going to ever get there.

Now, though, Drink is asking everyone to believe. The Tigers just went 11-2; why not? With him on stage are three players, Burden, safety Marvin Burks and a new transfer cornerback from Clemson, Toriano Pride Jr. Drink cracks a joke about their 40 times not being good enough. He believes the Tigers should be as talented on offense as anyone in the country. They did have to replace Cody Schrader, a walk-on running back who led the SEC in rushing in 2023 and was the best story in college football, and did so by signing two of the most sought-after senior running backs, Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll, from the transfer portal. Cook, a senior, should be a top SEC quarterback again if healthy. Drink tells the fans there’s no better wide receiver room in America, with Burden; Theo Wease Jr., a transfer from Oklahoma; and Mookie Cooper and Marquis Johnson. A look at the schedule and one figures: 11-1? Possible. Or 10-2 at the worst.

Drink floats atop all the morbid backstory exuding an enthusiastic charm and the temperament of someone christened as a winner, of someone whose salary will rise to $9 million next season and, at least for a while, make him bulletproof. He greets the crowd before him outside in plastic chairs and stands on a makeshift stage outside the restaurant, a few weeks before the team will be announced just outside the preseason top 10.

“I been coming to these events for four years,” he says. “I remember coming here and telling people all the things we believed we could do. We believed we could recruit elite players and we believed we could win at the biggest stage … and we’re not satisfied with where we’re at, we feel like we just realized our potential. Now it’s about continuing to push, but in order to do that, we need you.”

An older man named Rob stands up in the crowd and asks for the microphone.

“Coach, I live in Moscow Mills, Missouri,” he says, “and I’ve been a Tiger fan for a long time. Three years in my lifetime we flirted with being No. 1. The first time I remember was 1969 — we lost a heartbreaker in the Orange Bowl to Penn State. In 2007, we had a magical season with Chase Daniel and then 2013, that first SEC East championship. My question for you is, after each one of those seasons, expectations were sky-high for the following year. And we had good seasons the next year but fell short. Tell me why this season is going to be different … how are we going to take that next step and not fall back just a little bit?”

Drink is caught off guard by how deep and kind of unsettling this is. How tortured an ask. Though he has been the coach at Missouri going on five years, it is unclear if even now he fully understands the embedded self-hatred of Tigers fans, whose expectations, despite the winning, are that fate will intervene no matter his preparations and things will always go wrong.

“Well, I mean that’s the toughest question I’ve been asked in a while,” he says. “Um … there’s no way to know or predict what the future is going to be. I think our team is still extremely hungry. We want to win an SEC championship. We had six players drafted. Those guys were really good players. But if you look at the competitive depth on our team, we should be a more talented team this year. It’s really going to come down to the mindset of the coaches and players and I, and are they really hungry to reestablish their own identity? All I know is, the only thing that matters to us is being better today than we were yesterday. If you can do that continuously …” He might not always look the part, but all these gathered people are looking at him as the head football coach. And he sounds like a head football coach, relying on old-school phrases in the hope of winning people over. He trails off. The crowd applauds him.

“YOU’RE NOT A jock, Coach,” I say to him. Which is meant as a compliment, an affirmation of one of the ways he has described himself. Drink is on one of the morning walks he takes every weekday before practice begins, when he collects his thoughts and makes phone calls to donors and recruits, when he slips away for 40 minutes to an hour by himself. The compliment is a pledge of allegiance, me describing myself and pointing at my own glasses, the fact I, too, have always had to wear them; have always looked for ways to put them aside; have gone to lengths, even as a child, to hide that my vision was bad by either pretending to see the board or sitting in the front of the class. That I can’t wear contacts because of sensitivity, that I still take them off half the time my wife and I post pictures on Instagram because removing my glasses is a part of my life. There are four days before the 2024 season begins at home against Murray State, and he’s tracking his steps on an app and wearing a white safari hat that shades his face and the top of his head and the whistle around his neck. We follow his usual path from the auxiliary staircase of the South End Zone football complex past the indoor football training facility and down the walkway with huge painted tiger paws up the hill to the basketball arena. The light stands atop Faurot Field disappear behind us into pretty woodlands and a trail veined with cracked gravel and littered with leaves, chippering birds getting louder and the sound of the cars on Providence Road softening into a kind of faraway purr.

Drink does not like what I said, though. He shakes his head and says, “Well, all right,” and then, “Ah, OK,” but it is clear he does not want to be identified this way, that we are not on the same page. No matter what he has said about himself in public he will not be a member of my made-up club. “I’m a better athlete than you expect, but that’s OK,” he says, hardened by the comment and quieted by it, like it’s a lazy perpetuation of the image he has been up against since he was a senior in high school getting good grades and playing football and having to prove to people by force that the guy pictured in his yearbook wasn’t who he actually is, wasn’t all he is.

“I am probably more like Mike McDaniel than Dan Campbell,” he says. “I quit caring what people say. [Shutting people up] used to be a big motivation for me. And carrying this chip on my shoulder. But now I’ve come to realize that’s never going to quiet anybody. The only thing you have to prove is to the people who believed in you.”

I want to tell him I’m one of those people who believed, who believe. But he has me on the other side of the ledger at the moment. And from there, the “big motivation” seems like it’s not all the way in the past tense.

He walks past the quiet softball field and soccer field and over the covered bridge that leads back to the football complex where he and players enter on Saturdays before the games. Drink is the fourth of six children. He shared a room in the trailer with two brothers (his three sisters shared another) and was picked on by them. He rotated sleeping on different levels of a bunk bed at his brothers’ command.

His older brother Jeremy, the president of a hospital system in Southwest Missouri, calls him at least once a week and attends pretty much every home game. “He’s always been blind as a bat,” Jeremy says. “In all candor, we didn’t have much money, so those were the glasses given to him. Dad was a teacher and mom stayed home and took care of the kids. That’s why they were as big as his face when he took pictures. One of the funniest stories is that Mom once accidentally left him at the eye doctor. She had to take alllll these kids to school. She went and dropped him off before school, took everybody else, forgot to come back and get him.”

I ask him about Drink now, about what he sees in him. Jeremy keeps it simple. “I ask for his opinion about how to lead,” he says. “How do you motivate? How do you inspire people around you?”

ASK MALZAHN ABOUT Eli Drinkwitz and it’s like he’s talking about himself. Drink is his guy, shaped out of clay under Malzahn’s intense work schedule. He doesn’t get too deep about anything different about Drink, of course; why would he? “Well, he is unique … it’s hard to explain, it works to his advantage,” Malzahn says. But he wants to talk about Drink as a young linebacker in high school: “He’d knock your head off now. Knock your stinkin’ head off. He has those glasses and looks a certain way, don’t let the kinda whatever you call it, don’t let that kid you.” He wants to talk about him as someone willing to “grind” for $13,000 a year in the labyrinths of quality control, someone who never recoiled from the slog of watching film, as it was his job after every Auburn game to break down the tape through the eyes of an opponent, to self-scout the team and present a report to Malzahn as though Drink were the defensive coordinator. In their first year together, Auburn won the national title. Yes, Malzahn wants to talk about Drink’s leadership and communication skills, to tell me that Drink possesses an imperceptible gift of being able to be smart about football but also relate to anyone, that everyone at Auburn from the secretary to the equipment people knew him and liked him. A nerd? Hell no. Malzahn called Drink and Casey Woods, now the offensive coordinator at SMU, the Ryan Brothers, in homage to Rex and Rob. “That dude is a worker,” Malzahn says. “He’s earned everything to get where he’s at. At Arkansas State he’d get there at 6 in the morning and wouldn’t leave ’til midnight. He wouldn’t flinch. He gets crap done.”

This is kind of the way Cook wants to talk about Drink, too. In the irrevocable terms of what they’ve been through together, their relationship linked in that Drink will always be the coach who stuck by the player last season and even this one, when Cook was booed at home games and went on to be one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC. Cook being a Missouri kid, a St. Louisan who dreamed about playing for Mizzou when he was a child going to games, who last week brought Drink’s voice to quiver in the postgame news conference when he was injured early against Auburn and then returned from the hospital in the third quarter to lead Mizzou to 6-1. “What can I tell you about Drink?” Cook asks. “Like, he’s goofy and he has humor. But he’s cutthroat at the same time. He represents Missouri with a chip on his shoulder, a little swag. I used to think of him more of like as a nerd, kind of like that. That idea, ‘Ah, OK, this guy is really smart and has glasses but he’s probably not, like, swaggy.’ As time has gone on, it’s changed.”

Drink’s old coach in high school, Frank Vines, who led the Alma Airedales for more than 30 years and was a three-time state champion, now watches every Missouri game from the rocking chair in the living room of his house back in Alma. “I’m getting old and went through a lot of kids,” he says. “Eli was not a great athlete. But he was very smart, very dedicated, and those are the two things I think that have kind of stood out in his life. On our team he was like having a coach out on the field.”

Watching Drink now prowl the sidelines is watching someone with his own style but who exhibits an amalgamation of what he has learned at various stops: Arkansas State, Auburn, North Carolina State, App State. The intense game-planning in his office and rigorous schedule of watching film like Malzahn, even late at night with his feet propped up on the couch, at home, with his daughters. Vines was a yeller, a tough guy, “the bad guy,” he says to me, “I didn’t baby anybody around,” and that is one thing Drink must have decided he didn’t want to be; he doesn’t scream at players often, and at one point, as a student, he told Vines to his face that he didn’t like the way he said “Goddamn,” using the Lord’s name in vain. Drink, for example, sits quietly in the head chair of the staff meeting going around the room and letting position coaches talk about their observations, much more in the style of a listener than a dictator.

Zac Thomas, Drink’s quarterback for one glorious season at Appalachian State, laments what they could have done with an even better team had Drink not left for Missouri in 2019. “He does a really good job of relating to players,” Thomas says. “He’s one of the first coaches I had in that level where you could come to him with problems, he was a sounding board. The way he goes about himself, cracking jokes — yes, football is an intense game, and you go through a lot of hardships, but you also have to be able to have the laughter, bring joy to the locker room. He brings people on cookouts, paintball, skiing trips, fun activities, he does ways to reward you to keep you going. He’s not the coolest coach on the face of the planet, but he knows what he’s good at.”

VINCE LOMBARDI WORE glasses. The game of football actually seems built on those horned rims and the sport he was able to see through them that no one else could. A company in New York now sells replica frames called Vince, describing this era as an eyewear renaissance and the throwback of his championship look. Woody Hayes wore them, too, in a different way, a brutalist accentuation of the black hat yanked over his ears and his shoulders bursting through his button-up jacket, his eyes magnified through those lenses and the insatiable temper nearly popping them right out of his skull. Jim Harbaugh wears glasses like a Siberian prison wears the snow. Supposedly, he says, to honor three people: Hayes, Michael Douglas in “Falling Down,” and Malcolm X.

Drink is in his office, wearing glasses. His tennis shoes are propped up on a velvet couch. The view through his office window is of the north end zone of the stadium and a clear and inviolable sky. When the season began, the Tigers were picked by plenty of people to make the first-ever 12-team playoff; so many pundits picked them that it honestly seemed to diehard Missouri followers like a bad harbinger. Mizzou has never once been able to follow up a great season with an even better one. He shows me the customized Cuban cigar humidor in black and gold that he received as a gift for winning the Cotton Bowl. Some texts from the Chief, singer Eric Church himself, a big fan of Drink. The Cotton Bowl ring and football from the game on a stand. A dozen other trinkets from last season’s run, an actual Cotton Bowl throw rug, and this giant framed picture right outside his door that shows him wearing sunglasses and the microphone headset thing extending in front of his mouth as he stares off into the distance with a hard-won frown, as if he were Nick Saban.

The entire office wall is made of glass. The view is of the sky and the stadium bleachers and the goalposts and the grass berm and Mizzou’s “Rock M.” Beyond that Providence Road and the University Hospital, the brick dorms with the windows open, a view all the way toward the columns at Jesse Hall and the most underrated campus in the SEC. By the window, to preview this same view of the future, Drink has a poster board of what the north end zone will look like in two years. Multiple levels of luxury suites rising several stories above a shrunken Rock M, an expanded concourse, thousands of people milling about the unfamiliar edifice, new seats where most of the grass used to be. I tell Drink, who didn’t grow up in Missouri but whose parents took him to Branson a few times, that when I look out there, I don’t exactly see what he does: sunshine, sure, but there are darker implications. I look out there and see Charles Johnson pushing with the ball one more time on “fifth down” from the 1, and Colorado “winning” the national title though he still didn’t cross the goal line. I see Matt Davison in the cool night air from my vantage point in the bleachers as a 17-year-old shocked that Mizzou was about to beat No. 1 Nebraska, Davison’s gloved hands cradling a deflected pass from Scott Frost off the foot of a Husker receiver named Shevin Wiggins with no time left in regulation, as the fans begin to storm the field at Faurot but then have to pull back in stupor as the most dominant team of the 1990s miraculously ties the game and then goes on to beat the Tigers in overtime. This is known as the Flea Kicker. Drink doesn’t see the field goal attempt, like I do, hook right in double overtime to ruin an undefeated season against South Carolina in 2013. He doesn’t understand the bodies that are buried and how deep they go, and thankfully he doesn’t care. Last year, Harrison Mevis drilled a 61-yard field goal into that end zone and Mizzou beat Kansas State.

“Mizzou was a challenger brand,” he tells me. Of course, he knows it doesn’t have the cachet of Alabama, or even somewhere like Florida. Which is why he took the job thinking the state had untapped potential given the talent that St. Louis and Kansas City regularly produce but that usually goes elsewhere. NIL and Drinkwitz are changing this. He has signed three top-25 classes in his Missouri tenure and kept several of the state’s best players (and some best nationally) home, including five-star recruits such as Burden and Williams Nwaneri. The cachet thing still proves true, though, when the Tigers drop in the polls three times after victories against Boston College, Vanderbilt and Auburn. It will take forever to be seen as Alabama’s worthy opponent, even if they beat the Tide on Saturday.

“We wanted to create story and space because if you’re not a blue blood it’s hard to get written about or recognized,” Drink says. “But now we’re to the point where we’re there, and it needs to be a lot less about me and a lot more about Brady Cook and Luther and Theo Wease. Those guys are way more important to this than I am. But it took a little of me putting myself out there to get noticed. But now that they notice and know who we are, it doesn’t need to be about me. I was a lot more active on social media. When I was at SEC media days, I was a lot wittier and a lot further and willing to take shots at other people, maybe more antagonizing; this year’s approach to media days was much more calculated.” No one at Mizzou has ever spent so much time on his image or being mischievous. The Star Wars thing he did with Mullen. Taking a jab at Tennessee’s Josh Heupel by calling a timeout last year at the end of the game against Tennessee, the game well in hand. Heupel is known for running up the score and kicking onside kicks against lesser teams, and when the Tennessee kicker missed against Missouri, Drink deadpanned after, “We stand on business, Josh.” About the only opposing coach Drink has never been willing to tweak is Saban.

“I tried to avoid doing anything that would create a narrative or create a viral moment, because I wanted the focus to be on the team and the players. As great as Saban is, when he retired, they replaced him in 48 hours. And the story was no longer about him and Alabama, it was about who’s next. No matter how good you are, you’re always replaceable.”

I’D RATHER HAVE a nerd as a coach. I’d rather have this guy who cannonballs off the diving board into the backyard swimming pool at his daughters’ command. I’d rather have someone who is openly self-referential than some other kind of coach, or the idea of some other kind of coach. I’d rather have this guy who drives his daughters in the back of a golf cart through the neighborhood to the Phillips 66 to get them ice cream or cinnamon buns or Andy’s Frozen Custard. Who takes them fly-fishing in Montana and wears the little safari-style hat. This guy who once sang “Livin’ on a Prayer” in public at a Mexican resort. As someone posted on X in November, “He may be a nerd, but he’s our nerd.” At this point, after all, no one has led Mizzou all the way. Not Don Faurot, the immortal coach in statue outside the stadium and for whom it is still named. Not Dan Devine, who had an 11-win season six decades ago, walking the old sideline in a suit and tie and top hat before he went to coach the Packers. Not Pinkel. So why not this person? This history major; this occasional strummer of guitars (he has two in his office) and smoker of Cuban cigars; this lover of Wendy’s hamburgers, this doer of dishes on weeknights when he comes home from football, this guy who somehow managed to get his daughters into Taylor Swift concerts this year and last, who gets them coffee now when he takes them to school. This guy who makes opposing fans boil over simply because he is a singularity in the game. I’d really rather him change nothing about himself at all — nothing about the way he looks, about the way he speaks, about the way he seems to have gotten under Heupel’s skin. Look at him. Look at his aura. Mizzou has never had anyone like him.

THE PLAYERS GATHER around him. The light is heavy outside. The turf of the practice field steams. He has been watching from a distance and standing behind a machine that sends footballs into the air to mimic a punt. He has a microphone that he talks through and huge speakers on the side of the field project his voice so players in every position group can hear him. Earlier in the day, the first time they saw him he ran into the team meeting room with his arms waving in the air, clapping to get the team going, shouting expletives when talking about getting the football into the air against Murray State. But then later out on the turf, the players put their hands on each other’s shoulders as he speaks to them, lost in the group except for the sound of his voice. And to be fair to him, from a distance, in the middle of the field with the players and his staff, in a white hoodie in the noonday sun, nothing really stands out about him. He looks like any other coach. Except for two red indentions on the sides of his nose where his glasses used to be.

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All the news, flips and top moments from the early signing day

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All the news, flips and top moments from the early signing day

  • ESPN staffDec 3, 2025, 06:28 PM ET

College football’s early signing period started Wednesday and runs until Friday. Class of 2026 high school recruits who signed have locked into the college of their choice for at least the next year.

The drama started early when Vanderbilt flipped five-star QB Jared Curtis from Georgia on Tuesday night. Defensive end Jordan Carter (No. 57 overall) was the highest-ranked uncommitted recruit. He chose Tennessee over Auburn and Georgia Tech on Wednesday. Virginia Tech was a big mover of the day, adding 11 players who were formerly in James Franklin’s class at Penn State. USC added to its top-ranked class by flipping Kayden Dixon-Wyatt from Ohio State. Texas has the most five-star signings of any team, headlined by QB Dia Bell.

If a prospect doesn’t sign a national letter of intent by Friday, the next national signing day for this cycle begins Feb. 4.

We tracked all the news, analysis and more throughout Wednesday.

More: Class rankings: Top 75 | How the five-stars fit

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Early signing day 2026 takeaways: Five-star hauls, winners and CFP hopes

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December 4, 2025

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Early signing day 2026 takeaways: Five-star hauls, winners and CFP hopes

Dec 3, 2025, 10:49 AM ET

College football’s early signing period opened Wednesday with much of the 2026 recruiting class committed. That added some extra drama for those teams chasing last-minute additions and flips.

Coaching changes weighed heavily on the end of this cycle with Virginia Tech adding eight commitments since James Franklin’s hiring. Auburn and Arkansas each saw movement in their classes following their coach hirings Sunday.

Here’s a look at the winners, the programs that missed out Wednesday and the questions that still loom over the 2026 cycle after more than 12 months of recruiting played out in the span of 12 hours:

Jump to: Texas’ haul | Carousel impact
CFP boost | Who has overachieved | Impact QBs

Texas’ five-star haul is impressive

A few teams landed multiple five-star prospects, but none has more than the Longhorns. The class fills needs but also has extremely talented players at impact positions.

On defense, linebacker Tyler Atkinson (No. 17 overall) has a combination of skills and production that can’t be ignored. He recorded 550 tackles in his prep career and had three double-digit sack seasons. He’s a versatile and explosive defender whether he’s rushing off the edge or in coverage. He is joined by defensive end Richard Wesley, No. 8 overall. After the Longhorns leaned some on the transfer portal this past offseason to retool their defensive line, Wesley will be a key player who projects to be versatile within their front, with the strength and heavy hands to set the edge and the ability to slide inside and expose mismatches with his quickness.

Offensively, QB Dia Bell, the sixth overall prospect, might be the most well-rounded, having been a multiyear starter and consistently playing at a high level of competition. While he is not a true dual threat, he can create second chances and be effective when asked to run. As a passer, his basketball background has helped develop his pocket movement and he has good touch on his deep ball. In running back Derrek Cooper, Texas has its future replacement for Quintrevion Wisner. Cooper’s initial impact could be limited but he brings similar attributes, with the ability to be a 1,000-yard rushing threat and rank among UT’s most productive pass catchers. Again, Texas has set itself up to replace a productive player with a prospect with arguably even greater impact ability. — Craig Haubert

Coaching changes hurt Auburn, Penn State and Oklahoma State

Traditionally, in-season firings tend to be the first domino to a class implosion. Such moves didn’t burn Florida and LSU on the 2026 recruiting trail. But amid a historic coaching carousel, the recruiting classes at Auburn, Penn State and Oklahoma State were among those that felt the fullest force of their school’s respective coaching changes in recent months.

Auburn’s latest class held firm in the weeks after the Tigers fired Hugh Freeze on Nov. 2. In fact, four of the program’s five decommitments since then occurred only after Auburn hired Alex Golesh from South Florida on Sunday. But the departures themselves were significant. Four-star safety Bralan Womack (No. 39 overall), the Tigers’ top-ranked 2026 commit, and quarterback Peyton Falzone (No. 225) each pulled their pledges on Monday. And while signatures from four-star wide receiver Jase Mathews (No. 258 overall) and a trio of ESPN 300 linebackers still give Auburn a foundation of 2026 talent, the Tigers’ incoming class lacks starpower.

Defensive tackle Danny Beale (No. 108 overall) and running back Kaydin Jones (No. 25 RB) marked Oklahoma State’s star additions in a surprisingly strong start to the 2026 cycle. Both left the Cowboys’ class between Mike Gundy’s September departure and the arrival of North Texas coach Eric Morris on Nov. 25. Following another series of decommittments over the past week-and-a-half, Morris is set to begin his rebuild in Stillwater with a thin class of early signees.

The fall recruiting misfortunes of Auburn and Oklahoma State, however, look tame next to the developments that have unfolded around Penn State’s 2026 class since mid-October.

As of Wednesday morning, only two commits remained in a Nittany Lions class that ranked 17th nationally when the school fired coach James Franklin on Oct. 12. Among the high-profile departures from Penn State since then: offensive tackle Kevin Brown (No. 78), wide receiver Davion Brown (No. 109), running back Messiah Mickens (No. 141) and longtime quarterback pledge Troy Huhn (No. 198). To add insult to injury, 10 of the Nittany Lions’ 21 total decommitments ultimately landed with Franklin at Virginia Tech, all signing with a surging Hokies 2026 Wednesday while Penn State’s coaching job still sits vacant in early December. — Eli Lederman

Which teams improved their CFP chances?

USC Trojans

35 commitments

ESPN 300 commits: 18, two five-stars

USC is getting close and just lost a game at Oregon that would have likely thrust it into the CFP in 2025. The class is loaded top to bottom, even including juco prospects. To take the next step, though, the Trojans must continue to beef up the trenches. They pulled four-star defensive tackle Jaimeon Winfield out of Texas, landed in-state defensive end Simote Katoanga and traveled to Utah to snag offensive lineman Esun Tafa. To further bolster the offensive line, the Trojans landed Keenyi Pepe out of IMG Academy. He has great size at 6-foot-7 and 320 pounds but is light on his feet as well as physical and can become a standout tackle. Five-star cornerback Elbert Hill headlines the skill-position players. Hill possesses elite speed, having been measured at over 22 mph in game play.

Michigan Wolverines

25 commitments

ESPN 300 commits: 12, one five-star

Michigan has quietly put together a very successful season, winning five games in a row prior to a loss to Ohio State despite multiple offensive injuries at running back and a true freshman QB in Bryce Underwood. This class features six players who rank in the top 10 at their respective position. Michigan bolstered its backfield by landing No. 2 running back Savion Hiter, a runner with a nice blend of size (6 feet, 200 pounds), power and speed who can also catch the ball out of the backfield. After losing two defensive linemen in the first round of the NFL draft, Michigan added several to this class, including four-stars Titan Davis, McHale Blade and Tariq Boney. Michigan has also received a commitment from five-star Carter Meadows, a rangy edge defender who can affect the QB. — Tom Luginbill

Which teams have overachieved?

Houston Cougars

18 commitments: one five-star, 17 three-stars

Coach Willie Fritz has made huge strides in his second season at Houston and recruiting has picked up as a result.

The class has been headlined for several months by five-star quarterback Keisean Henderson, the No. 1 dual-threat QB in the country. Henderson could become a program-defining prospect that thrusts the Cougars into Big 12 championship contenders for years to come. Henderson has also been a loyal commitment throughout the process despite obvious overtures by other bigger programs to flip him. He’s dynamic as a runner and a gamer as a passer.

UH’s class also features the sixth-ranked tight end in the country in Jaivion Martin. The 250-pounder is a well-rounded blocker and receiver who can play as an inline in the run game. He also competes in track and field. The Cougars have also nabbed a top-25 athlete in Paris Melvin, who could project at cornerback or wide receiver and is a dangerous return man who ran a 10.86 100m in the spring of 2025. One of the more underrated running back prospects in the class is John Hebert, a Ryan Switzer-type scatback/utility weapon. He ran a 4.54 40-yard laser timed in the spring and has posted a max speed of 21.3 mph.

This class is full of high-end three-star prospects, and perhaps no coach in the country has a better track record of developing prospects than Fritz.

SMU Mustangs

21 commitments: six four-stars

SMU is now running with the big dogs not only on the field, but in recruiting circles as well. The Mustangs have added several offensive linemen, no bigger than Sam Utu, an ESPN 300 player with tackle athleticism and guard power. The Mustangs also picked up Evan Goodwin, a massive presence at 6-7 and 320 pounds, Evan Goodwin, a massive presence at 6-7 and 320 pounds, and in-state guard Drew Evers, a thickly built and strong blocker who can latch on and control defenders. Rhett Lashley knows the trenches are what’s going to elevate the program.

Capitalizing on the rich talent base in Texas, SMU has added several in-state prospects, including SC Next 300 back Christian Rhodes. Rhodes, an explosive runner who has been recorded hitting better than 21 mph max speed in game play, also brings a physical running style at 6-1, 200 pounds. High three-star Aljour Miles II, a lengthy receiver who has good quickness and body control, is another nice in-state addition. Another receiving target with big-play potential, Jakai Anderson, was pulled out of Louisiana. Not quite as big a target, he brings a good blend of speed and elusiveness and could also be productive in the return game.

On defense, defensive end Hudson Woods shows some savvy as a pass rusher, with active hands and good bend. Linebacker Kenneth Goodwin out of California is a versatile, physical defender who can rush the passer.

Auburn Tigers

12 commitments: six ESPN 300 prospects, eight total four-stars

Despite the firing of coach Hugh Freeze and some late defectors, this class still has major talent upgrades committed, particularly on defense. The class is not large, but it is stacked with overall top-end talent. There are four players ranked within the top 11 players in the country at their respective position and two within the top three.

Adam Balogoun-Ali is the country’s No. 1 inside linebacker and also happens to have significant growth upside with his lengthy frame. He can play inside and on the outside as an edge rusher and excels in space due to his speed and agility. The Tigers also have a commitment from the No. 3 inside linebacker in the class, Shadarius Toodle. Toodle is just a step behind Balogoun-Ali in terms of overall speed and is a downhill gap plugger in the middle of the field.

New head coach Alex Golesh has a good foundation to head into the dead period with and attack the transfer portal in January for more additions. — Luginbill

These 2026 QBs could start early

Jake Fette, Arizona State Sun Devils: Assuming Sam Leavitt goes in the portal, Fette, the No. 4-ranked dual threat, brings a lot of great traits to the Sun Devils offense. He’s super athletic and mobile, with the field vision to keep his eyes downfield while on the move. Fette is very similar to Leavitt in stressing defenses with his arms and legs. Fette also has good touch and anticipation on short to midrange throws. Coach Kenny Dillingham will challenge defenses schematically with a lot of shifts, motions and backfield action that will maximize Fette’s dynamic skill set in and outside the pocket.

Oscar Rios, Arizona Wildcats: Rios is the Wildcats’ highest-rated pocket passer signee in the ESPN 300 era. How immediate the impact depends on whether Noah Fifita returns for the 2026 season. If Fifita chooses to return, Rios could redshirt as a true freshman and be the favorite to become the starter in 2027. Rios’ quick release and great arm strength should lead to big numbers under coordinator Seth Doege in Tucson. — Billy Tucker

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Inside the final days of Lane Kiffin’s time at Ole Miss and his move to LSU

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December 3, 2025

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Inside the final days of Lane Kiffin's time at Ole Miss and his move to LSU

  • Mark SchlabachDec 3, 2025, 01:30 PM ET

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    • Senior college football writer
    • Author of seven books on college football
    • Graduate of the University of Georgia

OXFORD, Miss. — Last month, as some of the biggest college football brands pursued Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, a staff member polled the team’s assistant coaches about where they wanted to be in the 2026 season.

The coaches discussed four options: Remain at Ole Miss, where they had built a legitimate College Football Playoff contender; leave for SEC rivals Florida or LSU; or take over Florida State, which according to people with knowledge of the search, was making a stealth move to poach Kiffin.

The entire defensive coaching staff, led by coordinator Pete Golding, preferred to stay at Ole Miss, which was on the verge of its first 11-win regular season and CFP appearance, two sources told ESPN.

All but one offensive assistant wanted to leave for either Florida or LSU, which historically had enjoyed more success than Ole Miss but had fired their coaches after their teams struggled this season.

That meeting was indicative of the divided loyalties and uncertainty that defined one of the most compelling coaching searches in college football history, which threatened to not only derail the Rebels’ historic season but also captivated fans on three SEC campuses and around the country.

On Sunday, after days of mounting tension and uncertainty, Kiffin finally agreed to become LSU’s coach, abandoning an Ole Miss team that is 11-1 and holds the No. 6 spot in the CFP selection committee’s latest rankings.

Even worse for many Ole Miss fans, Kiffin departed for a program they consider its fiercest rival in the SEC.

“You’re not leaving to coach the Giants or the Dolphins or the Buckeyes,” a source familiar with the situation told ESPN. “You’re talking about going to a place that we will play [each of the next four seasons].”

BY THE TIME the Rebels traveled to play rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl on Friday, a pall had settled over the Ole Miss program.

Florida and LSU had ramped up their courtships of Kiffin, who had transformed Ole Miss from a midtier SEC program to one of the best in the FBS. The Rebels had gone 54-19 under Kiffin, winning 10 or more games in four of the past five seasons. Only blue bloods Alabama and Georgia had more success in the league since Kiffin arrived.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin interviewed Kiffin in Oxford in early November — a bold move behind enemy lines to get an edge on the most coveted candidate in the coaching carousel, two Florida sources told ESPN. Gators fans, who had watched their team limp to losing records in four of the past five seasons, clearly favored Kiffin.

Years ago, Kiffin wanted Florida, but Stricklin hired Billy Napier, then the coach at Louisiana, in November 2021. Kiffin’s off-field behavior made Napier the safer option, despite the Rebels’ 10-3 campaign that season, in which they defeated nationally ranked Arkansas and Texas A&M.

The Gators went 22-23 in three-plus seasons under Napier, and he was fired Oct. 19 after they struggled to a 3-4 start.

It wasn’t the first time Kiffin had been rebuffed by the Gators. After Kiffin was fired as USC‘s coach five games into the 2013 season — the Trojans dismissed him in a private terminal at Los Angeles International Airport following an ugly 62-41 loss at Arizona State — then-Florida coach Will Muschamp sought to hire Kiffin as his offensive coordinator the next season. However, Muschamp was told by UF officials that the SEC office wouldn’t allow him to bring in Kiffin, according to two people familiar with the situation, and Alabama’s Nick Saban hired Kiffin a couple of weeks later.

Early on, Ole Miss officials believed Florida might be the biggest threat to lure Kiffin away because of his family’s connection to the Gators. His ex-wife, Layla, had moved to Oxford earlier this year to be closer to two of her children: Knox, a sophomore at Oxford High School, and Landry, a junior at Ole Miss. Layla Kiffin’s father, John Reaves, was a star quarterback for the Gators from 1969 to 1971 and was later an assistant under legendary coach Steve Spurrier.

However, the Florida opening became Kiffin’s second choice, sources close to him told ESPN, once LSU fired Brian Kelly on Oct. 26, a day after the Tigers lost to Texas A&M 49-25 at home. While Kiffin was reportedly turned off by Stricklin’s involvement in the Florida program, he didn’t seem overly concerned about the political environment at LSU.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was highly critical of athletic director Scott Woodward for leaving LSU on the hook for a $54 million buyout when Kelly was fired. Woodward resigned under pressure Oct. 30 and was replaced by longtime LSU administrator Verge Ausberry.

During his introductory news conference Monday, Kiffin revealed he had a “unique, great call with Governor Landry” during LSU’s recruitment of him.

“I could feel his passion and energy for the state of Louisiana and for LSU football,” Kiffin said.

LSU became more attractive to Kiffin once Ausberry was promoted, sources told ESPN. Saban, who guided the Tigers to the 2003 national championship and helped Kiffin resurrect his career when he brought him on as Alabama’s offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016, was complementary of Ausberry.

LSU brass interviewed Kiffin sometime in mid-November. On Monday, Ausberry said the initial interview with Kiffin lasted less than 90 minutes. When Ausberry called other LSU officials to pick him up, they were like, “Y’all finish, already?”

“It wasn’t a three- or four-hour meeting,” Ausberry said. “[Former LSU baseball coach and athletic director] Skip Bertman taught me that. Nick Saban taught me that you don’t ask great coaches, ‘What you gonna do on third-and-8? Tell me about your offensive game plan, tell me about your defense, tell me about who you’re gonna hire.’

“Here, it’s like, ‘What do you need to be successful? We want you to be our coach here. What do you expect from me as athletic director? What do you expect from LSU, and do you want to be at LSU?’ And that was pretty much the conversation.”

Ausberry recalled working under Bertman when the Tigers hired Oklahoma State‘s Les Miles before the 2005 football season. Bertman’s teams won five College World Series titles and seven SEC championships during his 18 seasons as coach from 1984 to 2001.

“Hiring the football coach at LSU is the biggest thing in the state of Louisiana,” Ausberry told Bertman. “It’s the biggest job. I said, ‘If you hire the wrong one, Coach Bertman, all your national championships, all your great baseball programs, that’s going to be your legacy.’

“So, I thought that this would be my legacy at LSU, and that I have to get the right person to be the head coach of LSU.”

At the same time, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford also was wooing Kiffin behind the scenes, sources familiar with the search told ESPN. Kiffin and Alford had worked together at USC — Alford as the Trojans’ associate AD from 2000 to 2003 and Kiffin as Pete Carroll’s tight ends/wide receivers coach from 2001 to 2003. But Florida State hadn’t fired embattled coach Mike Norvell, whose program had slipped dramatically after going 13-1 and winning an ACC title in 2023. The Seminoles cratered last season, going 2-10, followed by a 5-7 mark this year.

The Seminoles would have owed Norvell about $54 million if they fired him without cause, plus another $18 million to pay off his assistants.

Hiring Kiffin, the hottest coach on the market, might have allowed Alford to justify spending $72 million to dismiss Norvell and his staff. The Seminoles’ recruitment of Kiffin continued into the middle of November, according to the sources. But after it became clear Kiffin wasn’t coming, FSU announced Nov. 23 that Norvell would return for a seventh season.

Ausberry said he worked tirelessly to keep LSU’s courtship of Kiffin under wraps, even though there was plenty of speculation that the Tigers wanted him.

On Nov. 17, fans using online flight trackers discovered that LSU had flown a jet to Oxford and back. Layla Kiffin and other family members visited Baton Rouge that day. She visited Gainesville, Florida, the day before with her son and Lane’s brother Chris’ son.

“They had to really see Baton Rouge,” Ausberry said. “That was one of the big things, because her father was an All-American at the University of Florida, and a coach [and] great NFL player, and those are things that we were a little afraid of. That’s that pull of Gainesville, and then she came to Baton Rouge.”

Kiffin’s family visits to rival SEC campuses — and the fact that they became so public — were like a slap in the face to many Ole Miss fans, who believed their coach was trolling them.

Kiffin was upset about what Rebels fans were saying about him, but an Ole Miss source described the development as a “self-inflicted wound.”

“What do you expect when your family flies to visit two of our competitors?” the Ole Miss source said.

A WEEK BEFORE the Egg Bowl, Kiffin met with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce, as pressure was reaching a tipping point between the sides. Carter and Boyce wanted Kiffin to make a decision and sign a lengthy contract extension that would have made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport.

Ole Miss officials had assured Kiffin it could match anything Florida and LSU were offering in terms of revenue sharing and NIL, at least under current NCAA rules.

Kiffin wasn’t ready to commit, however, and informed Boyce and Carter that he hadn’t made up his mind. Kiffin didn’t think it was fair that he had to decide at that point because Ole Miss hadn’t even finished the regular season, sources close to the coach told ESPN.

“This is what’s wrong with the whole system,” a source close to Kiffin told ESPN. “Because this is another example of how nobody’s been in charge of anything in college football. Because if it was the NFL, you couldn’t talk to anybody until after the playoffs. It’s a horrible system.”

Boyce and Carter explored potential ways to keep him from coaching in the Egg Bowl — and they made it clear that he wouldn’t coach in the CFP if he accepted a job at Florida or LSU, Ole Miss sources told ESPN.

Cooler heads prevailed, and the sides agreed that the Rebels needed to focus on beating Mississippi State and potentially securing a CFP first-round home game, which would be lucrative for both Ole Miss and Oxford.

“[Kiffin] was looking for a reason to leave,” an Ole Miss source told ESPN. “When Keith kind of put him on the clock, I think that kind of changed the narrative, changed the landscape a little bit.”

Carter released a statement Nov. 21 saying he’d had “many pointed and positive conversations” with Kiffin regarding his future at Ole Miss and that he expected a decision from his coach the day after the Egg Bowl.

By that point, many Ole Miss fans were fed up with the drama. One prominent booster told ESPN this week he’d already informed the athletic department that if Kiffin returned, he wouldn’t continue contributing money to the program.

“The fan base went from wanting to build a statue for him to wanting to run him out of town,” the booster said.

WHEN THE EGG BOWL finally arrived Friday, there was an overwhelming sense that Kiffin was coaching his last game at Ole Miss. There was plenty of drama off the field, as well.

Before kickoff in Starkville, Kiffin told ESPN that Mississippi State students broke into the Rebels locker room at Davis Wade Stadium, stealing the jerseys of quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and other players.

Mississippi State officials had promised to put security guards outside the locker room but failed to do so, and the thieves broke in again, Kiffin said. The Rebels had captured the thefts on hidden cameras and turned the video over to police.

The Rebels ran away from the Bulldogs in the second half of a 38-19 victory. As Kiffin celebrated with players for the last time, Mississippi State officials blared the hit song from The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” over the stadium speakers.

As Kiffin walked off the field, he embraced Boyce. Then he turned his attention to Ben Garrett, a reporter for On3. Kiffin confronted Garrett for using lyrics from a rap song to describe his unwillingness to commit to Ole Miss during a podcast: “Can’t turn a h- into a housewife. H-s don’t act right.”

Their argument continued in Kiffin’s postgame news conference, with Kiffin calling Garrett’s actions “bush league.”

“I don’t even know your name,” Kiffin told the reporter, a tactic he sometimes uses with staff members when he’s upset.

Garrett told ESPN that Kiffin called him the next day to apologize — and called him by his name. A few hours later, Kiffin texted Garrett a meme of Kiffin wearing a yellow-and-purple hat with the word “h-” on it.

AS COLLEGE FOOTBALL fans turned their attention to Saturday’s rivalry games, the Ole Miss campus was mostly quiet. Students were away for the Thanksgiving break, and Kiffin spent the morning with his family at a hot yoga class.

At one point, he assembled his coaching staff at the Manning Center to review film of Georgia, in case Alabama lost to Auburn in the Iron Bowl, which would have put the Rebels in the SEC championship game.

Around 6 p.m. ET, Kiffin met with Carter at the chancellor’s home on campus. During the nearly two-hour meeting, Kiffin broke the news that he was leaving for LSU. However, Kiffin continued to lobby his AD to allow him to coach the Rebels in the CFP.

“[Kiffin] had an opportunity to coach in the playoff, and that would have been to stay at Ole Miss, and he chose not to do that,” Carter told ESPN. “That’s his choice, and I respect that choice. But then we had to make a choice, and talking with the team and spending time with them, I think they know they need coaches to make a playoff run.

“I think they were very concerned about their position coaches and those types of things. But I think they understood when someone takes a job at another place — and not only another place but one of our rivals and a team that will be playing in our stadium next year — I think that that’s something that nobody feels comfortable with.”

Carter told ESPN that he’d been weighing whether to allow Kiffin to coach in the SEC championship game because of the short turnaround. When it became apparent that Boyce and Carter weren’t going to budge on their position about the CFP, according to Ole Miss sources, Kiffin threatened to take his entire offensive coaching staff with him to LSU.

It was his last leverage chip in a tense standoff to coach in the postseason. Ole Miss staff members confirmed to ESPN that Kiffin told his assistants that if they didn’t go to LSU with him on Sunday, they wouldn’t have a job with him in the future.

By the time LSU administrators landed in Baton Rouge following the Tigers’ 17-13 loss at Oklahoma on Saturday, Kiffin’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, had been frantically trying to reach Ausberry. When the men finally connected, Sexton delivered the news that Kiffin was ready to take the LSU job.

The outcome of the Iron Bowl might have determined whether the Tigers would have to wait another week to introduce their new coach. Auburn rallied to tie the score late in the fourth quarter, but Alabama went ahead 27-20 with 3:50 to play.

After Alabama recovered a fumble at its 20-yard line with 33 seconds left, Kiffin’s tenure at Ole Miss was over.

“It’s a tough situation,” Ausberry said. “He loved that place. We were thinking about that timeline. Also, I got kind of nervous the night when Auburn tied Alabama in that game. Now, it might push us back a week, but we were comfortable.”

In fact, Ausberry said LSU didn’t have a problem with Kiffin coaching the Rebels in the CFP, as long as he signed his contract with the Tigers. Kiffin said in a statement announcing his departure that Carter wouldn’t allow him to coach, and he added that he was willing to put guardrails in place to protect Ole Miss but didn’t specify what they would be.

“It’s great,” Ausberry said. “It’s great publicity for our institution. You have a coach, coaching out there, coaching [in the] playoff, playing for a national championship, and being the next coach of LSU, so we had no problems with that.”

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Lane Kiffin respects Ole Miss’ decision to not have him coach in CFP

New LSU coach Lane Kiffin reflects on the process that led to Ole Miss not allowing him to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff.

That was exactly the situation Ole Miss officials wanted to avoid — its historic CFP run becoming a monthlong infomercial for LSU’s next coach. They also didn’t want Kiffin coaching their players once he left. The transfer portal opens Jan. 2, and it would have given Kiffin more time to potentially recruit the Rebels’ best players.

“The players were concerned about commitment and those types of things,” Carter said. “[With] this playoff run, we plan on this being a four-, five-, six-week thing. There’s just no way that that’s possible. I know that the scheduling and the timing and all that stuff is a part of the equation. But I’m just not sure there was any plan that was going to work that would allow the head coach of a rival school to be in your building and coaching your guys. We had to stand up for our program and what we thought was best.”

Late Saturday night, ESPN reported that Kiffin was signing a seven-year contract with LSU. A team meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. ET Sunday, when Kiffin would address the Rebels for the final time.

ON SUNDAY, the meeting was pushed back to 2 p.m. ET, as Ole Miss officials scrambled to figure out which assistants were leaving and staying. The Rebels also were working to name an interim coach. Pete Golding would end up being hired as Kiffin’s permanent replacement before the team meeting.

“I got back to the office and said, ‘You know what? We’ve got a great solution to all this. Somebody that’s right here under our nose, that’s going to be the next great coach. He can help us hold this staff together,'” Carter said.

Kiffin encouraged Carter to meet with the team’s leadership council, according to Ole Miss sources, telling him that he wasn’t going to like what he would hear. But instead of telling Carter the team wanted Kiffin to coach in the CFP, the players said they were more worried about their position coaches staying and had grown tired of the drama surrounding Kiffin.

After the 30-minute meeting with Carter, the leadership council also met with Kiffin, Ole Miss sources told ESPN.

In response to the statement Kiffin issued announcing his decision, in which he claimed the players wanted him “to keep coaching them,” Rebels starting center Brycen Sanders, a member of the leadership council, posted on X on Tuesday: “I think everyone that was in that room would disagree.”

Linebacker Suntarine Perkins, another member of the council, added on X: “That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this.”

Meanwhile, Layla Kiffin drove a white Mercedes into the parking lot behind the building about an hour before the scheduled team meeting. Golding paced on a sidewalk, talking on a cellphone for more than 15 minutes.

Lane Kiffin was escorted out of the Manning Center 10 minutes before Ole Miss players met with Carter, Boyce and Golding.

There were a few dozen fans and reporters gathered outside the building. Officers in three police cruisers were parked nearby, in case things got out of hand, as they did when Kiffin left Tennessee after only one season in January 2010. UT students burned couches and nearly rioted the night of his stunning departure.

As Kiffin and his son drove out of the parking lot around 1:45 p.m. ET, an Ole Miss student approached his black SUV and made an obscene gesture. It wasn’t the last one Kiffin would see that day.

A few minutes later, Ole Miss players started to file out of the Manning Center. One of them yelled, “It’s the Pete Golding era!”

By then, two planes owned by an LSU booster had been dispatched to pick up Kiffin, his family and the staff members who were joining him in Baton Rouge. The original rendezvous point was Tupelo, Mississippi, which is more than 50 miles from the Ole Miss campus.

On the way to Mississippi, someone told Ausberry that the flight was being diverted to Oxford’s airport.

“We’re going where? Oxford?” Ausberry said. “They’ll be shooting missiles at us.”

A few hundred Ole Miss fans lined the fences of the runway of University-Oxford Airport when the two planes landed. They booed the pilots, who could only laugh and wave. When someone asked Ausberry if he needed to use the restroom in the airport terminal, he said, “That’s OK, I’ll hold it.”

One by one, the Ole Miss assistants who were joining Kiffin arrived at the airport and were escorted to the planes in a black SUV. The fans booed their disapproval at offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., passing game coordinator/receivers coach George McDonald and co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Joe Cox, among others. (LSU announced Tuesday that Weis will return to Ole Miss for the CFP.)

Layla Kiffin was booed loudly when she drove her Mercedes onto the runway.

“He is what we thought he was,” said Ole Miss graduate Taylor Cauthen, who stood along the fence. “He was gonna win, and we knew how he was gonna leave. I mean, it’s not surprising to anybody with any sense. He was gonna win games, and he was gonna leave, and it was gonna be bad.”

Cauthen, who moved back to Oxford in July, said Kiffin hijacked the Rebels’ historic season and turned it into a soap opera about him.

“He’s taken it from us,” Cauthen said. “He made it all about him. I think he wakes up every morning, looks at himself in the mirror, and tells himself he loves him. I think that’s who he cares about most. I think he cares about himself more than anything on this earth, including his family.”

Joe Ignatius, an Ole Miss baseball player from 1992 to 1996, watched in disbelief as Kiffin and his assistants left Oxford like diplomats fleeing a foreign country.

“I feel naive thinking it wouldn’t happen to us,” Ignatius said. “It just didn’t have to go this way. It could have been six great years going your way, thanks for what you did. But leopards don’t change their spots. And I got fooled, so not what I expected.”

Ignatius said he felt the worst for his son, Bodacious, an eight-grader, who grew to love the Ole Miss football team.

Kiffin, along with his son, was the last person to arrive at the airport. By then, police were turning away fans because the parking lots were full. Kiffin used an auxiliary entrance, which had fire trucks and firefighters blocking the road to keep fans away. He was escorted down the runway by a state trooper and another emergency vehicle.

Once Kiffin pulled his SUV next to the plane, the Ole Miss fans gave him a full-throated sendoff. He was embraced by Ausberry, who was wearing a purple shirt, and climbed the jet’s stairs. There was no farewell wave to the fans.

“He got on that plane and was like, ‘Let’s go. I’m ready,'” Ausberry said.

Only a few hours later, defensive tackle Lamar Brown of Baton Rouge, an LSU commit and the No. 1 player in the 2026 class according to ESPN’s recruiting rankings, posted a photo with Kiffin on X with the caption, “Welcome home.”

During a news conference at LSU on Monday, Kiffin said he wasn’t surprised by the reaction of Ole Miss fans when he left.

“They ain’t going to the airport and driving from all over, OK, to say those things and yell those things and try to run you off the road if you were doing bad,” Kiffin said. “Time heals a lot of things, and having gone through this in this conference before, I sure hope that happens.”

Kiffin won’t have to wait long to find out. The Tigers are scheduled to open SEC play at Ole Miss next season.

On Monday at the Po-Boy Express in Baton Rouge, LSU fan Remi Brignac, his son Beau and their friend Jay Olinde were discussing the program’s future with Kiffin.

“We’re optimistic for change,” Remi said. “Finally got an offensive mind.”

Olinde, meanwhile, isn’t expecting a long-term marriage.

“I believe that he will bring the program back to where we expect it to be in Baton Rouge,” Olinde said. “But I also believe that as soon as he gets that done, he’ll leave for the NFL, coaching the Dallas Cowboys.”

ESPN’s Dave Wilson contributed to this report

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