Lane Kiffin has built Ole Miss into one of the top college football programs in the country since he took over in 2020, and his daughter Landry played a direct role in his decision to remain with the team years ago.
In an ESPN special called “The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin” that will air on Wednesday night, Landry revealed that she and her friends helped convince Lane not to leave Ole Miss back in 2022. Lane had just gone 10-3 in his second season with the Rebels, and he was heavily courted by Auburn and some other programs.
Landry, who is now 20, had moved from Los Angeles to Oxford, Miss., in 2022 to finish high school and then enroll at Ole Miss. When her father was contemplating his coaching future, Landry says she and her friends put together a slideshow that they knew would pull at Lane’s heartstrings.
“I was like, I don’t want to go move somewhere else. I like it here. Me and my friends, we made this slideshow — like, collage — to a song that we knew he would find sad and just really rethink his decision,” Landry said. “We came into the office and then set it up on a movie projector screen and we were like, ‘We have something to show you. Come in here.’ Then he sat down and we played it and he was, like, crying. After that, he told us he was gonna stay. So, it worked.”
Kiffin said he had not decided whether he was going to leave Ole Miss at the time, but the gesture made a significant impact.
“I needed Oxford and Ole Miss a lot more than they needed me, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know God’s plan,” Kiffin said. “I didn’t know he was gonna give me a second chance at being an in-person parent.
“Sometimes you need your kids to point some things out to you and just remind you of some things. That was very impactful. I’m not saying I was going. I don’t know that. I was deciding, but that made the decision for me.”
Wednesday on ESPN, 7 PM ET, it's our @E60 special "The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin." Here's an excerpt, about "a second chance at being an in-person parent." pic.twitter.com/j53TQArvKV
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) September 23, 2025
Ole Miss is off to a 4-0 start this season and looking for their first ever College Football Playoff appearance. Landry might be happy in Oxford attending Ole Miss, but she is dating a star football player from another SEC school. The Rebels happen to be facing that team on Saturday, which will make for an intriguing storyline.
Kiffin had a perfect response after his 20-year-old daughter went Instagram official with her new boyfriend this week.
