Lane Kiffin ignored an offer from RealTree Vice President Tyler Jordan to buy his dog, Juice Kiffin. The British Labrador Retriever was returned to its rightful owner after he was left behind in Oxford when the former head coach at Ole Miss left for LSU.
He went on a hunt with Knox Kiffin over the weekend!
One of the biggest mysteries of the most chaotic coaching carousel in college football history has been solved but questions still remain. It is currently unclear as to where exactly Juice is going to live.
Lane Kiffin owns his dog.
There was a lot of chatter about the former unofficial mascot at Ole Miss over the last 10 days. Everybody wanted to know what was going to happen to Lane Kiffin’s dog when his owner left Mississippi for Louisiana.
It is Lane Kiffin’s dog. He paid for the dog. He owns the dog. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.
However, there was an element of deceit involved with the ownership while Juice lived in Oxford.
Wildrose Kennels is the oldest, largest and most diversified producer and trainer of British and Irish Labradors in North America. The staff at Wildrose Mississippi served as the primary caretakers of/for Juice over the last two-ish years while his owner served as the head coach of the Rebels.
He mostly lived on a 157-acre hunting preserve and only made public appearances with Lane.
Thus, when Kiffin and his family got on the plane for Baton Rouge, their “family dog” was not with them. They left Juice behind at Wildrose Kennels.
The initial abandonment became a massive story on social media. Was it all a facade?
Kind of, yes, but not really.
Lane owns Juice. Lane has not cared for Juice on a full-time basis as his social media would suggest.
Make of that what you will.
Juice Kiffin moved to Baton Rouge.
It became increasingly clear that Lane was going to reclaim full ownership of Juice as soon as this story started to make headlines, even if purely out of spite. It started with a post on X.
A change to the biography for Juice’s account on X also served as a snarky jab at the (largely uninformed) chatter on social media. It now reads: “Previous home: @wildrosekennels”
Here is where things get murky.
Juice is going to be super bummed if he is forced to move back into a family home after nearly two years in paradise. Imagine if you went from living at Buckingham Palace to a 48-square-foot apartment in NYC. More or less the same idea.
Tyler Jordan, the Vice President of Realtree Camo, made an offer to keep Juice at Wildrose forever.
“Would do anything to buy the dog. He is meant to hunt and the fact he would be taken away from doing what he loves breaks my heart more than anything.”
The offer either did not reach the Kiffin family and/or Lane declined. But there is good news!
Juice went on a hunt with Lane’s son Knox over the weekend so he is still doing what he loves.
If this continues to be the case, and Juice gets out to hunt often, great. I am glad he is still getting the opportunity to do what he was born, bred and trained to do! If this is a photo op just to stick it to the haters on social media, and Juice is forced to live inside the Kiffin family home in Baton Rouge, bummer.
There are a quite a few Labrador kennels in South Louisiana near LSU. Maybe there is an arrangement to be made that will allow Juice to split time like the one with Wildrose.
I don’t know what his future holds but I just hope he can run wild!
What I do know is that Lane Kiffin has always owned his dog Juice, even though he used to live at/with Wildrose, and Juice moved from Oxford to Baton Rouge. That settles that.