Tim Tebow thinks Lane Kiffin’s constant controversy could help protect his players

There is simply no coach in college football that dominates the headlines quite like Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin was already one of the most talked about coaches in the sport while leading Ole Miss to a playoff run last year, and when he left the Rebels in the middle of that playoff run to take the top job at LSU, the Lane content train jumped to a whole new level.

At LSU, he hasn’t slowed down generating headlines, from his star-studded walkout for his team’s season opener to being the driving force behind the debate of whether or not players that attended NFL training camps be allowed to return to college.

One might think that Kiffin constantly being in the headlines would be a distraction for his team, but former Florida quarterback and current commentator Tim Tebow has a different theory.

“Maybe because Lane brings on so much noise around himself and the program, I actually think possibly it could give more freedom to the players,” Tebow explained while appearing as a guest on Bussin’ & Pate on Campus. “Because not a lot of people are talking about the players—they’re talking about Lane, they’re talking about LSU, they’re talking about NFL players—they’re talking about all of these other things. I think sometimes the players can be like, ‘Alright, cool, we can walk through, because they’re all bothering Lane.'”

It’s an interesting theory. We’ve seen coaches often work to own the blame of a bad final sequence that ended in a loss, hoping to shield their players from harsher criticism. Tebow thinks that Kiffin might be working in a proactive way to simply always be in front of any story that might be coming LSU’s way.

“Lane takes some of that. I think that he knows it. I actually think he’s pretty smart in that way,” Tebow said. “It could be a way to get his players to really play free and fast. He’s pretty darn good at it.”

Tim Tebow explains why Lane Kiffin constantly owning the headlines might actually help keep the pressure off his players pic.twitter.com/d8ddXZV2aj

— Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) September 18, 2026

On the other hand, it’s possible that Kiffin simply likes to be the story. He has certainly never shied away from the attention, and seems to have especially enjoyed his past year and change as one of college football’s main characters. Maybe it’s all a coordinated effort to keep the focus on him so his players can focus on playing, or maybe that’s just a beneficial consequence of Lane being Lane.

Regardless, Kiffin won’t have to do any extra work to make sure the attention is on him this weekend, with LSU heading to Ole Miss to play in front of what should be one of the most vitriolic crowds in the history of college football.

As with so many things regarding Lane Kiffin, we will all be watching.