According to the first-year Louisiana State head football coach, Lane Kiffin’s drinking caused him and his wife Layla to divorce in 2016 and hindered his career.
After unexpectedly quitting Ole Miss ahead of the school’s inaugural College Football Playoff berth back in November, the 51-year-old made the revelation to Vanity Fair amid a barrage of bad press.
Since agreeing to a $91 million contract to play for the Rebels’ SEC rival in Baton Rouge, Kiffin has come to represent the sport’s detractors and the corrupting power of its enormous profits.
Kiffin held himself responsible for his actions as a young coach, husband, and father, despite his insistence that he did not care about the criticism surrounding his contentious choice. “When I was younger, my whole drive was like, “How fast can I get everything? How quickly can I land the big job? “The big contract?” he asked VF.
In a little over ten years, Lane—the son of renowned NFL defensive assistant Monte Kiffin—went from playing quarterback at Fresno State to coaching at USC under Pete Carroll to being head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Additionally, Kiffin accepted head coaching positions at Tennessee and then USC after things went awry with Raiders owner Al Davis, who attempted to force Kiffin to retire in 2008.
On July 29, 2010, then-USC head football coach Lane Kiffin (L) and his wife Layla Kiffin attend the FOX Sports/PAC-10 Conference Hollywood premiere night at 20th Century FOX Studios.
When Kiffin was at USC in 2011, he and Layla went to an awards ceremony in Century City, California.
Kiffin shared this picture in January to commemorate five years of abstinence, even though it seemed to have been taken before 2026. After divorcing in 2016, he and Layla got back together in 2025.
He told VF that the resume-building turned into an addiction that he fuelled with alcohol, initially beer and then vodka. In 2016, while he was serving as Nick Saban’s assistant at Alabama, he and his spouse separated.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to work on that, making decisions that are more delayed gratification,” he told VF. He would eventually quit drinking in 2021 while serving as head coach at Ole Miss. Around this time, he discovered yoga, which helped him lose forty-five pounds.I grew weary of recovering from hangovers, circumstances, or statements I made.
Additionally, Kiffin started keeping a journal. He subsequently shared a quote from Alcoholics Anonymous with ESPN, saying, “Ego was being replaced with self-respect, resentment and hatred were being replaced with tolerance and understanding.”
Additionally, Kiffin celebrated his fifth year of sobriety in January with an X post that featured a picture of himself with a happy Layla. On January 30, he wrote, “Welp 5 years ago today, I made a decision that would change my life and many others around me.”
I want to tell everyone that if something is preventing them from reaching their full potential, they CAN! I assure you that it will be worthwhile even if it won’t be simple at all.
