Auburn reporter blasts Lane Kiffin amidst DeSanto Rollins scandal: ‘Poor leader’

The Opelika-Auburn News’ Auburn football reporter Justin Lee blasted Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin amidst the leaked audio recording of his fateful (and expletive-laced) meeting with DeSanto Rollins that ended with the defensive tackle being dismissed from the Rebels; an incident that resulted in legal action against Kiffin and Ole Miss.

According to Lee, Kiffin was a “poor leader” given how he handled the situation.

“Addressed this when we got the transcript, but it’s funny he tried to draw allusions to the real world and real jobs,” Lee prefaced before saying, “Real bosses don’t hurl insults after their decision to terminate, just to make themselves feel better. Kiffin was a poor leader here.”

What former top Auburn football head coach target Lane Kiffin said to DeSanto Rollins

Kiffin has been in hot water since the transcript of the interaction with Rollins was released, mainly because of the bad optics of yelling and cursing at a player that he’s off the team after the said player cited mental health issues.

“See ya, go,” Kiffin told Rollins (h/t USA Today). “Go. And guess what? We can kick you off the team. So go read your (expletive) rights about mental health, we can kick you off the team for not showing up. When the head coach asks to meet with you, and you don’t show up for weeks? OK, we can remove you from the team. It’s called being a (expletive). It’s called hiding behind (expletive) and not showing up to work.”

Kiffin may not be in the wrong from the standpoint of dismissing a player who does not show up to team meetings and practices when he’s supposed to and doesn’t include a reason why, but he certainly was, in the court of public opinion anyway, when he escalated the situation with rage.