Lane Being Lane

The first book on the most polarizing coach in college sports, Louisiana State University football coach Lane Kiffin, charts his inexorable rise and his impact on the game, as he left a trail of winning teams, bad feelings, and controversy in his wake. In his fifty-plus years, Lane Kiffin has had a rarified perch, operating among football's biggest players, coaches, and brands. And during that time, he's managed to annoy just about all of them. Legendary Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, who made Kiffin the youngest NFL head coach at age thirty-one, so hated working with Kiffin that he publicly branded him a liar. Kiffin's abrupt departure from Tennessee led to protests and burning mattresses on campus. While at the University of Southern California, Kiffin was famously fired on a Los Angeles airport tarmac in the middle of the night. Hall of Fame Alabama coach Nick Saban, sick of three years of Kiffin's antics, fired him right before a national championship game.