Trinidad Chambliss disagrees with Lane Kiffin on Ole Miss' perception among recruits due to racial diversity

New LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin caused an uproar in May with comments that he made in a Vanity Fair profile regarding his previous job at Ole Miss.

In the article, Kiffin said that recruiting players to the Rebels’ football program was difficult because of a lack of racial diversity in Oxford, Miss., in addition to the school’s previous association with the Confederate flag, the Colonel Rebel mascot and the University of Mississippi’s “Ole Miss” nickname.

“‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,’” Kiffin said top recruits told him, Vanity Fair’s Chris Smith reported.

“That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana,” he added. “Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’”

Among those who took issue with Kiffin’s remarks were his former quarterback at Ole Miss, Trinidad Chambliss.

AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Speaking with reporters at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodeau, La., Chambliss said he held no hard feelings toward Kiffin for leaving Ole Miss for LSU prior to the Rebels’ playing in the College Football Playoff. Their relationship was “still cool,” he said.

However, when asked about Kiffin’s comments to Vanity Fair, Chambliss said he disagreed with his former coach about Oxford, which he called “home.”

“Me, personally, I don’t agree. I don’t think that what he said was truthful,” Chambliss said, via the Associated Press. “The Oxford community is nothing but love and they care about their people no matter what they look like: brown, black, purple, yellow — you know what I mean?”

Chambliss said his family felt the same way after his visit to the Mississippi campus and community.

“I asked my family what they genuinely thought about the visit,” he continued, “what they thought about the people, if they trusted what they were actually saying, if they’re gonna be true to their word.”

“They said, ‘I feel like this is the right place.’ And my mom’s super religious, too, and she just had a good feeling,” Chambliss added. “We prayed on it, and that was the main thing.”

Kiffin apologized for his remarks after the Vanity Fair article was published.

Chambliss is returning to Ole Miss for his sixth college football season after a Mississippi state court granted an injunction allowing him to play. The quarterback argued that he should have received a medical redshirt while at Ferris State during the 2022 season and thus had one more season of eligibility.

Kiffin will return to Oxford with LSU when the Tigers and Rebels, under head coach Pete Golding, play on Sept. 19.