Ryan Clark pushes back on Jimbo Fisher criticism of Lane Kiffin: 'How do y'all know the plan changed?'

Former FSU and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, now working with the ACC Network, described new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin as a “villain” on Wednesday ahead of the sixth-ranked Rebels’ College Football Playoff semifinal game vs. No. 10 Miami on Thursday evening.

Fisher specifically called out Kiffin for “chang(ing) the rules of the game” by allegedly limiting the number of former Ole Miss assistants now under contract at LSU that he allowed to join the Rebels coaching staff in Glendale, Ariz., for Thursday night’s Fiesta Bowl game. After six Tigers assistants joined Ole Miss’ staff through the first two rounds of the Playoffs, only offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and running backs coach Kevin Smith will be in Arizona for tonight’s national semifinal.

Meanwhile, new Rebels head coach Pete Golding, the team’s defensive coordinator the past three seasons, revealed four other ex-Ole Miss assistants — tight ends coach Joe Cox, receivers coaches George McDonald and Sawyer Jordan, and quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens — won’t be joining the team in the Fiesta Bowl.

“You can’t change the rules of the game in the middle of the game, not for the staff, but because of the players,” Fisher said Wednesday night on the ACC Network. “… Everybody says he thinks he’s made out to be the villain. He is right now, because that is wrong. Those (Ole Miss) kids have an opportunity to do something … you know, that national championship ring I have? Those guys, you don’t get those opportunities. What they have done, and for them to have the opportunity to win the national championship. … He’s wrong for doing it.”

After a clip of Fisher’s comments played on Thursday morning’s episode of First Take, ESPN analyst and LSU alumnus Ryan Clark pushed back against the narrative that Kiffin had done anything uncouth toward Ole Miss and its players. In fact, Clark suggested four of the six LSU assistants not staying with the Rebels through their entire Playoff run was always part of the agreement Kiffin and Golding made originally.

“How do y’all know the plan changed? How do y’all know … so many people are saying, ‘You can’t pull (the now-former Ole Miss assistants) now,’ but what if that was always the plan?” Clark said Thursday. “What if … the tight ends coach (Cox) and the receivers coach (McDonald), it was always the plan for them to leave at this point so they could do their job to steward and set up and represent and gain and acquire those kids they will be responsible to at LSU.

“LSU wanted Lane Kiffin to coach in the College Football Playoff. (Ole Miss AD) Keith Carter made that decision, and in making that decision, (new head coach) Pete Golding and Lane Kiffin have communicated from the very start the exact way this process would go,” Clark continued. “… But for us to build this narrative that this man (Kiffin) changed in the middle of what’s going on is wrong, especially when you don’t know.”

Clark also took issue with some of the personal shots Fisher — who was the LSU offensive coordinator (2000-06) when Clark was in Baton Rouge — while pointing out Kiffin’s loyalty is now divided after leaving the Rebels for Baton Rouge under a cloud of controversy Nov. 30.

“I disagree with some of what Jimbo said, and Jimbo was my offensive coordinator in college. Jimbo called (Kiffin) stupid, he’s actually not – he’s extremely intelligent. Jimbo called him fake, I think that he’s probably problematically authentic to himself,” Clark added. “And he called him selfish, and that part is true – the selfishness is going to LSU. It’s understanding that it’s a better job, it’s knowing you’ve been 10-3, you’ve been 11-2 and you didn’t get opportunities to be in the College Football Playoff, and when a team like LSU gets to that point, they get in.”