U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville joked today that Lane Kiffin, LSU’s new head coach, did the same thing he did when he left Ole Miss for Auburn over two decades ago.

“He left in a pine box,” Tuberville reported told Capitol Hill reporter Eric Garcia of the Independent. 

In 1998, Tuberville famously told media at the time, while denying his interest in the Auburn job, the only way he was going to leave Oxford would be “in a pine box” — less than a week before he packed up and headed to the Plains.

Kiffin, while he never said he was not leaving Ole Miss in the lead up to his abrupt departure to LSU this weekend, will go down much less favorably in the history books.

For Kiffin, he left during a historic season for the program ahead of his team’s first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff.

His run as head coach of the Rebels, despite being the best stretch in the school’s football history, will always be remembered for the way it ended: On a tarmac. In a pine box.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.