{"id":474610,"date":"2025-12-27T08:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/474610\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T08:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:39:10","slug":"frank-wilson-addresses-decision-to-leave-lsu-for-ole-miss-lane-kiffins-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/474610\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Wilson addresses decision to leave LSU for Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin’s involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was\u00a0reported on Dec. 16<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0Ole Miss<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0head coach\u00a0Pete Golding<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was set to hire\u00a0LSU<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0interim head coach\u00a0Frank Wilson<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to his inaugural staff in Oxford. The move will officially take place after the Tigers\u2019 bowl game, which will mark Wilson\u2019s fifth and final game in charge of the program after head coach Brian Kelly<\/a><\/strong> was fired on Oct. 26.<\/p>\n

Per On3\u2019s Pete Nakos, Wilson is set to be\u00a0Ole Miss<\/strong>\u2019 running backs coach. Prior to his promotion to interim head coach, Wilson served as\u00a0LSU<\/strong>\u2018s associate head coach\/running backs coach. Instead of remaining on staff to work under former\u00a0Ole Miss\u00a0<\/strong>head coach\u00a0Lane Kiffin<\/a><\/strong>, he will now go join the program Kiffin departed prior to its College Football Playoff run.<\/p>\n

Ahead of LSU<\/strong>\u2018s clash against No. 21 Houston<\/a><\/strong> in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 27, Wilson was asked if the opportunity to remain in Baton Rouge on Kiffin\u2019s staff was ever a possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it,\u201d Wilson revealed. \u201cWe talked about ways that it could work out. Coach Kiffin was absolutely awesome the entire time in wanting to try and find a way to work it out. We didn\u2019t come to that resolution, and so there were other opportunities out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPete Golding<\/strong> is a guy who I\u2019ve known for many years, from the time he concluded playing college football and was a young coach at Delta State Southeastern<\/strong> and then Southern Miss<\/a><\/strong> of course. Then, I had an opportunity to hire him back at UTSA<\/a><\/strong>. We\u2019ve forged an even closer bond and mutual respect professional for one another, so when the opportunity came, he extended himself to me and I thought it was a great fit for myself and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Wilson will return to Ole Miss, where he coached from 2005-07<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s return to\u00a0Ole Miss<\/strong>\u00a0marks another chapter in its reignited rivalry with LSU<\/strong>. He\u2019s a key hire for Golding as he takes over for Kiffin, who will make his return to Oxford quickly in 2026. The Rebels and Tigers will square off in Week 3 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium \u2013 what\u2019s sure to be one of the most anticipated games of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t come to a conclusion, but all those things were on the table,\u201d Wilson continued. \u201cWe had options on the table. Coach was awesome and I have no qualms with Coach Kiffin. He\u2019s going to do an outstanding job. He\u2019s assembled a great staff. He\u2019ll do fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

A New Orleans native, Wilson<\/strong>\u00a0played college football at\u00a0Nicholls State<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and served a student assistant in 1996. He then coached at the charter school level at\u00a0Edna Kerr<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0O.P. Walker<\/strong>\u00a0in Louisiana before joining the\u00a0Ole Miss<\/strong>\u00a0staff in 2005. In 2008, he took over as the running backs coach at\u00a0Southern Miss<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and worked alongside\u00a0Lane Kiffin<\/strong>\u00a0in 2009 as the wide receivers coach at\u00a0Tennessee<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

From 2010-15, Wilson served as\u00a0LSU<\/strong>\u2019s assistant head coach and running backs coach, as well as recruiting coordinator, until\u00a0UTSA<\/strong>\u00a0came calling. As a whole, between\u00a0UTSA<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0McNeese<\/strong>, he had a 26-40 overall record as a head coach.<\/p>\n

LSU<\/strong>\u00a0went 2-2 to end the 2025 regular season with Wilson at the helm. His tenure as the interim head coach will end following Saturday\u2019s Texas Bowl, which is slated to kick off at 9:15 PM ET on ESPN.<\/p>\n

On3\u2019s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was\u00a0reported on Dec. 16\u00a0that\u00a0Ole Miss\u00a0head coach\u00a0Pete Golding\u00a0was set to hire\u00a0LSU\u00a0interim head coach\u00a0Frank Wilson\u00a0to his inaugural staff in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":474611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,166046,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-474610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-frank-wilson","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}