Sports

Louisiana Reporter Claims Lane Kiffin Sent LSU Coach Back To Ole Miss To Tamper With Star RB Kewan Lacy

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Kewan Lacy LSU Lane Kiffin Kevin Smith Jr Tampering Ole Miss Matt Moscona
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Kewan Lacy is one of the many Ole Miss players who are not going to follow Lane Kiffin to LSU. It was not for a lack of trying.

According to LSU beat reporter Matt Moscona, the head coach of the Tigers sent one of his staffers back to Oxford to babysit a player who he hoped would follow him to Baton Rouge— not out of the goodness of his heart.

Mind you, Moscona is not the most reliable voice in college football by any stretch of the imagination and often flip-flops on his opinion when he is objectively wrong. This is actually one of those instances.

Kewan Lacy re-signed with Ole Miss.

There may not be a better running back in the country this season than Lacy. The 19-year-old true sophomore ball-carrier ran for 1,464 yards and 23 touchdowns on 295 carries en route to the Fiesta Bowl.

However, there were a lot of questions about his future over the last 37 days.

Would he stay at Ole Miss in 2026? Would he transfer to LSU to play for Kiffin? Or would he enter the transfer portal and play somewhere else?

A bizarre video in the middle of December made it sound like Lacy was headed to Baton Rouge with running backs coach Kevin Smith Jr. I, admittedly, thought it was too weird to be true. It wasn’t.

Lane Kiffin preemptively celebrated Lacy’s transfer on a phone call with one of his son’s friends. The conversation, which was filmed by someone in the Kiffin party, later leaked to social media— likely as pressure on Lacy to make a decision. I thought it was A.I. and still kind of do. It’s that cringeworthy.

Fast forward to Monday.

Kewan Lacy officially re-signed with Ole Miss on a lucrative, potentially historic NIL deal for 2026. As did Trinidad Chambliss, who expects to receive a sixth year of eligibility. And they are not the only ones.

A large number of Rebels who Tigers fans (and probably Kiffin) expected to play in the Boot next season are committed to play in Oxford. The mass exodus never happened. Awkward.

LSU reporters are forced to backtrack.

I was not aware of Matt Moscona prior to the last few weeks. Had no idea he existed.

I hate to even give him the time of day, but he has since become one of the most prominent voices of the Lane Kiffin era in Baton Rouge as a big Kiffin supporter— even though he said this about him:

Moscona previously stated that he expected Trinidad Chambliss, Winston Watkins, Kewan Lacy and Lucas Carneiro to end up at LSU.

He very quickly backtracked when Chambliss announced his decision to stay at Ole Miss.

According to Moscona, the same quarterback he said was a virtual lock to follow Kiffin was no longer an option because of the uncertainty surrounding his waiver. “Top teams” couldn’t go all-in with Chambliss so the Tigers “pivoted” to Brendan Sorsby (who committed to Texas Tech) and Sam Leavitt.

That was just the start. Moscona also claimed an “Ole Miss Raid” was imminent.

Matt Moscona
YouTube

Kiffin might get a few players to flip, like Winnie Watkins, but the vast majority of the best players on Ole Miss have announced their return like Lacy, Chambliss and Carneiro. The raid never happened.

Tampering?

To go even one step further, multiple coaches who are currently employed by LSU were pulling double duty with Ole Miss in the Playoff. They were going back and forth to Oxford and Baton Rouge to recruit for the Tigers and to help prepare the Rebels for Tulane and Georgia.

Lane Kiffin, who initially wanted to coach both teams, so graciously “allowed” them to do so. He has since changed his mind. Most of them — other than offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss Jr. — were called back to Louisiana full-time. The same guy who wanted to be the head coach at both LSU and Ole Miss told his assistant coaches they were no longer able to do two jobs at once. Hm.

Meanwhile, Pete Golding literally does not care who does or does not show up. Spot the ball.

That leads us to LSU running backs coach Kevin Smith Jr., who is back with Ole Miss.

Smith was not expected to return to Oxford after the Sugar Bowl. According to Matt Moscona, however, Kiffin “allowed” him to go back for one very specific reason— and his name is Kewan Lacy.

He later doubled down after the Tigers whiffed on the star running back.

That, by definition, would be tampering.

There is a big difference between coaching and recruiting. Ole Miss has kept a staffer employed for 2026 in nearly every meeting that also involves an LSU coach throughout this entire process to avoid the latter.

But here is Moscona— saying the quiet part out loud. Kevin Smith Jr. was sent back to Oxford only to stay with Lacy, who ultimately chose Ole Miss.

Unfortunately, a report from a guy like Moscona is not at all credible enough for the NCAA to punish the Tigers for tampering. He is wrong so often there is no way to prove this latest claim as truth. Plus, the NCAA does not have any legitimate power these days anyway. That doesn’t mean he didn’t say what he said.

According to Matt Moscona, Lane Kiffin sent Kevin Smith Jr. back to Ole Miss to recruit Kewan Lacy.