{"id":491332,"date":"2026-02-26T09:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491332\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:28:20","slug":"former-ole-miss-dl-zxavian-harris-should-have-believed-lane-kiffin-rumors-before-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491332\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ole Miss DL Zxavian Harris: \u2018Should have believed\u2019 Lane Kiffin rumors before departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Ole Miss defensive lineman Zxavian Harris didn\u2019t hold back from critiquing former coach Lane Kiffin following the Rebels\u2019 Sugar Bowl victory on Jan. 1. At the NFL Combine on Wednesday, Harris reiterated his position against the coach who bolted Ole Miss for rival LSU before the College Football Playoff began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Kiffin was there, he was telling us like almost every day, don\u2019t believe the rumors,\u201d Harris said. \u201cLike he\u2019s not gonna leave, to keep us focused. But by the time it came, everybody was starstruck. He told us not to believe the rumors. We should have believed it, and he just left out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ole Miss ended its season at 13-2 overall with a CFP semifinal loss to Miami.<\/p>\n<p>Rumors swirled in November about Kiffin\u2019s future, with LSU and Florida as possible suitors. Kiffin announced he had accepted LSU\u2019s job offer two days after the Rebels\u2019 regular season concluded but three weeks before the CFP began. Kiffin brought several Ole Miss assistants with him, but the schools had to reach agreements allowing them to coach each round of the CFP while working for LSU. It created a chaotic environment at Ole Miss, which beat Tulane in the first round on campus, then toppled Georgia in a CFP quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Rebels\u2019 39-34 win over Georgia, Harris blasted Kiffin, saying he was trying to \u201csteal the shine\u201d off the Rebels\u2019 accomplishments by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/On3\/status\/2006429107454693839\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">attempting to join the broadcast booth<\/a>. Harris initially thought Kiffin was playing with people before accepting the LSU job and said Wednesday that Kiffin\u2019s trolling is \u201cmy cup of tea. I like to see things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was pretty upset,\u201d Harris said. \u201cA 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 towards the season ended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harris said the team became closer through the adversity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat team bond that we built was even tighter,\u201d Harris said, \u201cprobably the best team bond I ever had since being at Ole Miss. To be real, since the coaches left, they just made us get closer. Like, a team really just need the players. Like the coach can tell you what to do, but like the players, like, do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harris praised new coach Pete Golding\u2019s leadership through Kiffin\u2019s exit and how he navigated a difficult time. Golding was Kiffin\u2019s defensive coordinator and was elevated after Kiffin left for LSU.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe beginning of it, like he kept it real with us, straightforward and him saying that to us really made us come together,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s gonna blast off. I know it\u2019s gonna be way better than what Kiffin had did to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Ole Miss defensive lineman Zxavian Harris didn\u2019t hold back from critiquing former coach Lane Kiffin following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,399,6342,398,396,397,19502,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-491332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-lsu-tigers","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-ole-miss-rebels","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}