Tennessee football vs. Ole Miss: Five reasons there’s bad blood between the schools

3. Lane Kiffin hired by Ole Miss a decade after leaving Vols

Honestly, this bad blood isn’t as deep as it might have been had the Rebels hired Kiffin back in the early 2010s or even right on the heels of his three-year tenure as offensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide. After all, there are some Vol fans who wanted Kiffin to be rehired when Butch Jones was fired at the end of the 2017 season.

However, people who have followed Tennessee football intently ever since Phillip Fulmer’s firing may have a hard time forgiving Kiffin’s antics. He left Rocky Top after one year for the USC Trojans job, and then Ed Orgeron, an assistant of his at the time who had been fired by Ole Miss two years earlier, ironically, tried to stop UT early enrollees from going to class so they could leave for USC.

All of this happened in January and created an excessive level of attrition that, quite honestly, gave Kiffin’s predecessor, Derek Dooley, almost no chance. Dooley made his own mistakes, and subsequent coaches since him have no excuse, but he inherited a horrible situation.

Meanwhile, USC eventually fired Kiffin, who then went to Alabama and became head coach of the Florida Atlantic Owls in 2017. After three years there, Ole Miss hired him, and last year, he had the Rebels putting on a show while Vol fans labored under Jeremy Pruitt. This all factors in to Kiffin’s return Saturday, and yes, it’s part of the bad blood.