Now that the dust is settled in Oxford, Ole Miss players are calling Lane Kiffin's exit exactly what it is: a betrayal.
Ole Miss players were finally asked the right questions at the NFL Combine, that gave them a chance to speak about the wildest coaching carousel event in the last season.
Lane Kiffin leading the entire Sip on for months, including his own locker room and telling them not to pay heed to any rumors, while silently discussing his salary with LSU behind locked doors, is finally getting called out.
De'Zhaun Stribling adds to outrage against Lane Kiffin
Rebels DT Zxavian Harris set the tone by brutally torching Kiffin with his answer on Thursday, and wideout De'Zhaun Stribling followed suit by calling out Kiffin's facade during his media appearance at the Cembine on Friday.
“It was a lot,” Stribling said. “There were a lot of distractions in a sense. But we kind of pulled everything together and didn’t worry about the outside noise about what coach was going to do and all that kind of stuff. And we just played the best ball that we could.”
Stribling's confession added even more hostility to Kiffin's homecoming on Sep. 19 for the ultimate grudge-match of the decade next season.
“When Kiffin was there, he was telling us every day, like ‘Don’t believe the rumors,’” Harris told Friday. “He’s not gonna leave. Keep us focused. But by the time he came (to LSU), everybody was starstruck. Like, he told us not to believe the rumors. We should have believed it.”
“The week before we played, they were telling me that he was trying to be on the top booth, trying to, like, announce it, and knowing him, me knowing Kiffin since my freshman year, like, he’s just trying to troll, for real,” Harris said. “That’s how him and the internet works.”
That's what the entire Rebel Nation has been screaming on top of their lungs ever since Kiffin boarded that jet to Baton Rogue.
“I was pretty upset,” Harris added. “It was a lot of people, like younger cats, they were there for Kiffin and stuff, and since Kiffin left, they were just heartbroken. But we got better toward the season end.”