Zxavian Harris: 'We should have believed' rumors of Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU

This week is the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine and Ole Miss has five players starting their NFL Draft process in earnest, but one topic from their final season of college football still looms over them.

Defensive tackle Zxavian Harris took the podium on Wednesday and during his media availability the inevitable subject of Lane Kiffin‘s unceremonious departure from Ole Miss to LSU was brought up.

Harris, who was one of the players very critical of Kiffin’s handling of leaving Oxford for Baton Rouge in the hours after winning last month’s Sugar Bowl, is continuing the sentiments in Indianapolis this week.

“When Kiffin was there, he was telling us like almost every day, don’t believe the rumors,” Harris said. “Like he’s 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.”

The back half of the 2025 regular season was not about the Rebels run at its first College Football Playoff berth but more about Kiffin and what he was going to decide between overtures from Florida and the Tigers or stay at Ole Miss for what would have been his seventh season, extending his longest-tenured head coach job of his career.

Everybody knows what Kiffin ultimately decided two days after beating Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. He hopped on a private jet with some of his assistant coaches and flew to Baton Rouge.

Harris and the rest of his teammates focused on what became CFP journey culminating in the Fiesta Bowl and a play away from reaching the national championship game.

“I was pretty upset,” Harris said. “A 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.”

Pete Golding was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach and the rest is history. Harris saw his defense coach galvanize a roster and become the story of the postseason.

Harris knows Ole Miss is in good hands moving forward, if not better hands than the those of the man previously in charge of the program.

“The beginning of it, like he kept it real with us, straightforward and him saying that to us really made us come together,” Harris said.

“It’s gonna blast off. I know it’s gonna be way better than what Kiffin had did to it.”