When Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU in the middle of a College Football Playoff run, the Rebels did not just change their locks, and erase their white boards and their group texts while the dust settled. They also called the FBI.
Grove Collective executive director Walker Jones laid out the whole thing on the Assorted Crackers podcast, and it is the kind of story that tells you exactly how much trust was left in the building by the time Kiffin was out the door.
"We actually had the FBI come through and walk the building for bugs and for everything," Jones said. "We knew kind of what was in Baton Rouge, and we knew how they operated."
Jones said he checked under his own desk for recording devices. The staff ran two separate text threads, held separate meetings, and cut back on hallway conversations to keep information from leaking to the coaches who were either on their way to LSU or considering making the move alongside Kiffin. That certainly is not standard operating procedure for a program getting ready to play in the Playoff.
The setup was messy from the jump. Kiffin accepted the LSU job right after the Egg Bowl, and his offensive staff, including coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., went with him to Baton Rouge. Athletic director Keith Carter told the players the offensive staff was relocating and many of them did. Meanwhile, the defensive staff stayed in Oxford under Pete Golding to finish the season. For a stretch there, Ole Miss was essentially operating with coaches who had one foot in Oxford and one foot at LSU while trying to juggle the prep required for a Playoff game and Golding's heading coaching debut.
The tampering concern was real. With coaches walking out the door for a conference rival, the fear was that some would try to pull Ole Miss players to LSU before the season was even over. The precautions worked about as well as they could have. Ole Miss held on to most of its roster, including stars Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacey, and only lost a few players to Kiffin and Baton Rouge.
Kiffin went 55-19 over six seasons in Oxford and had the Rebels at 11-1 and in the Playoff in 2025 before he ultimately decided to leave. Golding, who spent three seasons as Kiffin's defensive coordinator after five seasons running Alabama's defense, was promoted to the permanent head coach spot and led the Rebels to twins over Tulane and then Georgia before eventually falling in the CFP to Mario Cristobal and Miami in the.
There should be levels to how a coaching change gets handled. Bringing in the FBI to sweep for bugs is a new one that might just explain the modern era of college athletics appropriately right now.
Hear more from Jones on that podcast appearance in the clip.
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