Maybe… Lane Kiffin has not been the Nick Saban of college football. The Ole Miss head coach, Lane Kiffin, has exhibited an overwhelming emotional pattern that has compelled him to react to every high and low point in his life. Words like discipline, self-control, and patience were abruptly missing from his life a few years back. Of course, as the veteran head coach, Kiffin has come a long way, but as a human behind the gridiron longer. Lane, carrying the genes of legendary Monte Kiffin, quickly rose to the pinnacle of fame and controversies in the football realm. His head coaching tenure across schools like USC and the Oakland Raiders gave a rather toxic boost to his ego, forcing him to over-idealize his position. The alcohol made the game worse in its own right. But the story wouldn’t deserve a shout-out if it had ended there. Kiffin turned the page and wrote a new chapter in his book.

The chapter is called Sobriety. Coach Kiffin’s inspiring chronicle can serve as a guiding light for individuals struggling with addictions. Many in the industry had not been saints despite bagging big feats. Maybe they have self-actualized and made a better path for themselves in silence. The world only reads about their jaw-dropping records and awards. But Lane Kiffin, dear folks, is a different breed. He has the guts to lay bare his shadow sides to his fans and let them judge whatever. The transparency, the courage, and the determination to fight his demons speak volumes of his character. However, coming to his not-so-linear journey to sobriety, we needed to start from the bottom.

Between 2009 and 2011, Kiffin started to deal with the copious pressure and responsibility of a head coach from inside a bar. Indeed, fans may find it intriguing to encounter a meme depicting a coach struggling to overcome a heartbreaking defeat or a significant transfer portal loss. But in reality, the issues are as pervasive as a serious illness in the realm of college football. One fine morning, Kiffin woke up and decided to fix his life for good. Explaining the core motive behind it, the coach phenom explained, “For me, it was getting sober not just physically, but having emotional sobriety. It’s one thing just not to drink. It’s another thing to get yourself really figured out and really calm and have emotional sobriety. I can deal with these things. Can let them go… figure out how to deal with them. Just got to a point where I am not the best version of myself… I just felt like this isn’t the full me.”

Kiffin didn’t mince his words while coming clean on his big ego, getting the better of his personal life at one point in his life. He wasn’t yet accustomed to the head coach title and used to treat it like an elephant in the room. The other areas of his life eventually started to fall from the priority list. The coach found himself obsessing over the wins on the field only. All his mental stimulation and alcohol dependency were closely tied to each other. Thank God Kiffin got a wake-up call at the right time.

But what ultimately helped him to make the unthinkable? Well, predominantly a cleanse diet that featured “no red meat, no bread, no alcohol,” the coach said during a recent appearance on The Pivot Podcast. The little yet solid changes gradually started to heal his hormones and life all at once.

But he couldn’t have sustained the tumultuous journey to redemption if his family hadn’t had his back.

Lane Kiffin’s kids are the strongest motivators in his journey 

The fear of being a bad husband and a bad dad to his children gave the coach the hardest push through the battle. “I wasn’t fully present when I’d finally gone home. I’d go home and I’d have to have a couple of drinks, I’ve been working all week. Ya know? Then, I’m not really paying attention to their games, stuff like that. Then I’m like, wait, I’m giving my best version of myself at work but not at home, not for the kids… I didn’t hit a rock bottom. I just got tired of digging.”

The habits significantly made a bitter impact on his marriage as well, which eventually tore it apart in 2016. After 12 years of togetherness, his wife, Layla, gave up on the family they had built. The shock did a thing to him. Kiffin took years to process and analyze where things went wrong from his side. Fortunately, he was firmly connected with his kids (Knox, Landry, and Presley) throughout the period and realized his own self-centeredness and addiction habits ruined his life at the core.

That was the high time. Kiffin started to collect and stitch the broken pieces together. He started to spend his holidays with his daughter, Landry, and her friends in a theater hall rather than a bar. At the beginning of this year, after a long, stinging journey, Kiffin finally managed to reconcile with his wife as son Knox and her mom shifted to Ole Miss. The couple flaunted their rebounded romance and happy family goals all over the internet. Be it Landry’s birthday bash or a private beach day out, the Kiffins are going strong! Saying goodbye to alcohol can do a lot in your life, for real!