Lane Kiffin did not appreciate how Ben Garrett approached all of the drama that went down in Oxford over the last month of the college football regular season. The Ole Miss beat reporter used a Project Pat (and Ludacris) lyric to question his loyalty, which led to a heated exchange on the field in Starkville.
Kiffin won’t let it go!
The new college football coach at LSU texted Garrett on early Tuesday morning in direct response to a noncommittal answer from Trinidad Chambliss about his future. Are these two things the same?
Lane Kiffin is still thinking about Ben Garrett.
This whole thing started on the week leading up to the Egg Bowl. Well, really, it started the day that Florida fired head coach Billy Napier.
From that point forward, no matter how many times he was asked, Lane Kiffin would not address his future. He does not discuss other jobs during the regular season. Never has, never will.
I don’t know if it is a Jimmy Sexton policy or if it is a Kiffin policy but this has always been the case. He would not talk about the LSU or Florida job while at Ole Miss. He won’t talk about the next job that comes available while at LSU. It is what it is.
However, as Kiffin refused to commit himself to the Rebels long term, other coaches around the country pledged their allegiance to their current programs. Like Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State, for example.
And then it became increasingly clear that Kiffin was going to leave Oxford for Baton Rouge.
Around that time, Garrett used a Ludacris line to discuss the situation. (Project Pat said it too!)
Garrett quipped on his podcast that you “can’t turn a hoe into a housewife because hoes don’t act right.”
That did not go over well with Lane Kiffin. The head coach at Ole Miss (at the time) confronted the reporter on the field at Wade Davis Stadium after a win over Mississippi State. They also got into it during the postgame press conference.
Kiffin did not appreciate Garrett’s choice of language.
Lane Kiffin, on any frustration over the past few weeks, which included a postgame confrontation with a reporter.
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) November 28, 2025
References how he thought he was called a ‘hoe’, and then it got further awkward. pic.twitter.com/ggzFS3EqPV
And then he left for LSU just a few days later.
Kiffin called Garrett to apologize before he bounced. He also sent him the following text:
That was that. Or so it seemed!
Trinidad Chambliss requested another year of eligibility.
Former Ferris State quarterback Trinidad Chambliss won a Division-II national championship last season. He was likely going to transfer up to Temple before Ole Miss stepped in and stole him away.
The rest is history.
Chambliss took over at quarterback after an injury to Austin Simmons and led the Rebels to the College Football Playoff. He even got two first-place Heisman Trophy votes! Life is good in Oxford on island time.
Chambliss would like to play another year in 2026 and recently filed a waiver to request another year of eligibility. He is likely to hear back sometime in the next few days. We’ll see. It could go either way.
Ben Garrett asked Trinidad Chambliss on Monday if he was going to consider all of his options if he does in fact get another year of eligibility. His question, which Garrett admitted could’ve been worded better, was designed to figure out whether the quarterback would explore the transfer portal.
Although the situations are not apples to apples, it was not unlike when Garrett asked Kiffin if he was going to stay at Ole Miss. Chambliss responded the question but did not give a definitive answer about his future either way.
That was on Monday afternoon. Lane Kiffin texted Ben Garrett at 4:16 a.m. on Tuesday morning with a rhetorical question.
He wanted to know if Trinidad Chambliss is a “hoe” for answering Garrett’s question “basically the same way” he did. Kiffin also included a social media post from the Constitution Party of Louisiana.
As of this writing, Garrett has not responded.