Next time you’re perusing your supermarket’s freezer aisle, keep an eye out for this chocolatey, nougat-y ice cream candy bar that our reviewer loved.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
Author: alaskaadmin
The land by the Haines Highway 18 mile marker holds a lot of personal history for Patrick Philpott.
It’s where Philpott, a hunter, got his first kill: “It was a rabbit, and I remember the rifle I used,” he said during borough assembly testimony last week. “It was a Montgomery Ward .410 single-shot bolt action. And the (the rabbit) tasted mighty good. He ate good carrots.”
Philpott also grew up gardening at the spot, on a plot his family cultivated for generations, stretching back to the early 20th century, when they opened a roadhouse near current-day Haines Highway 19 Mile.
“That’s where I learned to make my first dimes,” he said, recalling in his youth shoveling horse manure at the Port Chilkoot Dock to take to the garden as fertilizer.
The old garden footprint is now heavily overgrown, save for a small clearing separated by about a hundred yards of dense brush from the highway. Philpott, 71, a retired veteran and elder of the Frog House in Klukwan, is hoping once more to garden on that land — land that is now part of the state’s Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. In his estimation, he’s earned the right to grow one to two acres of vegetables by his and his family’s years spent gardening that very land, and he says state law supports that assertion.
The 48,000-acre eagle preserve was established in 1982 to protect large populations of bald eagles that fish in the Chilkat, Klehini, and Tsirku river confluence late into the year.
In applications to the state’s Division of Parks and Outdoor recreation, Philpott has cited a passage in the state statute creating the preserve which guarantees “continued opportunities for traditional uses of the Preserve at levels and methods and means that are compatible with the protection of the bald eagle population.” The statute, AS 41.21.618, goes on to say those uses include, but are not limited to, “hunting, trapping, fishing, berry picking, other subsistence and recreational uses, operation of motor vehicles and the harvesting of personal-use firewood.”
Philpott’s argument hasn’t gotten much traction at the Division of Parks, which manages the eagle preserve and is part of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Parks director Ricky Gease denied his permit application on May 26. Philpott is now appealing the decision to Department of Natural Resources commissioner John Crowther.
So far, state agencies hold that Philpott’s request is a land use distinct from subsistence activities like hunting and berry picking.
In the denial of the application, Gease wrote that a garden would alter the land from its “current use, open and accessible by the public in general, to a private use for a garden.”
That kind of private use, Gease wrote, would require Philpott to officially lease the land, not just use it under a permit.
While the DNR commissioner does have statutory authority to lease Eagle Preserve land, Gease wrote that eagle preserve land has never before been leased, and the agency has no process outlined to do so, specifically for how to solicit public input and consider a lease application.
Division of Parks spokesperson Wendy Sailors wrote in an email this week the decision “was not based solely on potential impacts to eagle use, but on whether the proposed activity was consistent with the statutory purpose of the Preserve and the legal framework governing management and leasing of lands within the Preserve.”
In an earlier email, Division of Parks staff told Philpott a lease application would likely include a $1,200 application fee, a land appraisal running an estimated $3,000–$5,000, and an annual lease fee “based on the fair market value of the parcel.”
In his initial application, Philpott had asked the state to lease him 2.5 acres for $1 a year and said his motivation for the garden in the first place was stretching a limited income.
“The purpose of this garden is personal food production and food security,” he wrote. “My wife and I are senior citizens living at the poverty level and producing our own food is an important step toward self sufficiency. We would rather grow our own food than depend on assistance.”
“I’m not the person to stand there with my hand out,” Philpott later said at the assembly meeting. “I want to be able to do it myself as long as I’m able.”
As Philpott’s appeal remains pending he has the written endorsement of the Eagle Preserve Advisory Council, the Chilkoot Indian Association, Chilkat Indian Village tribal administrator Brian Willard and the Haines Borough Assembly, which voted unanimously last week to write a letter of support.
Currently there are only two active special-use permits — the type of permit Philpott is seeking — in the preserve, said DNR spokesperson Wendy Sailors Monday. One is for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service forest monitoring data collection sites. The other allows Alaska Mountain Guides to place outhouses at highway pullouts inside the preserve.
The post Philpott Eagle Preserve garden headed to appeal appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
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“The story is unfolding in real time”
For the past few months, Christiane Leitinger has been hunting down a vehicle previously owned by her parents, named the Ugly Duckling.
The journey took her from Juneau to Haines to Anchorage tracing the path her family took in 1961 when they drove from Florida to Alaska in the World War II-era GMC that is part car, part boat. It took Leitinger’s parents from Prince Rupert, British Columbia up to Haines via the Inside Passage.
So, along with her husband and daughter, Leitinger came up to Alaska from Colorado with some of the nearly 600 negatives of images that she found in her mother’s journal detailing the trip. For Leitinger, this trip was another way to connect with her parents, who died in 2003 and in 2011. The Ugly Duckling was a central character in the stories her parents told when she was growing up.
“I wish I had been more curious as a kid, because I’m sure there would have been amazing stories had I been more curious, but it was just sort of family lore,” Leitinger said.
Leitinger’s parents, Ilse Abshagen and Hans Leitinger, immigrated to the United States from Germany and Austria to attend school, where they met. The couple bought the vehicle in 1957 in Minnesota and went on a trip through Central America, eventually ending in Patagonia. A few years later, they decided to drive clear across the United States. Starting in the summer of 1961 in Jacksonville, Florida, the pair drove to Seattle and followed the coastal mountains in British Columbia. When they got to Prince Rupert, they put the vehicle into the water and boated up through the Inside Passage, stopping in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau and Haines. From Haines, they drove up to Fairbanks and back down to Anchorage, where they ultimately sold the vehicle to Ralph Centoni, who wanted to restore it. The trip from Florida to Alaska included nearly 6,000 miles of driving and more than 500 miles of boating.
In January, Leitinger’s husband Charley Shimanski told her that he would be traveling to Juneau for the Mountain Rescue Association’s summer conference in June. While she does not typically join Shimanski for these meetings, she realized this would be the perfect opportunity to see if she could find the Ugly Duckling. At first, she thought she might find it in Juneau.
“I had sort of this outline, sort of this initial mosaic of a story but sketchy,” Leitinger said. She said that each person who offered her what they knew would sort another part of the mosaic into place. After spending about five weeks researching where the Ugly Duckling ended up, Leitinger and her two daughters made a breakthrough. One of the pictures she has of her parents shows them on a beach with the jeep, overlooking a body of water with beautiful mountains in the background.
Leitinger’s daughter Eva Sophia looked at the photo and used Google Earth to pinpoint the location. She would go to the ground-level view and go up and down the fjords from Juneau, looking at different angles to match the mountains in the photo to a current geographical location. A few days later, Eva Sophia geolocated the photo to a spot on Mud Bay Road.
Once in Juneau, Leitinger made her way to the Alaska State Archives. She looked at microfilms of newspapers across Southeast Before setting off for Juneau, Chrisitiane went through boxes of her parents’ belongings. She found a box that was titled “Alaska” and found her mother’s journal from the trip and around 600 negatives. The journal entries were written in German, so Christiane was not able to comprehensively look through it before heading to juneau because she had to translate it. Instead, she put all of the dates in a spreadsheet, creating the path of their journey. She brought this to the archives, letting her look at the newspaper archives from around the time her parents made landfall. She found articles from Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell, Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage.
Leitinger and her husband decided to extend their trip after realizing that one of the photos was taken in Haines – the photo from Mud Bay Road. Joined by their older daughter, the couple took the ferry up to Haines, where they met Martha and Michael Mackowiak. Leitinger began showing the duo her one-inch-thick binder full of photos from her parents’ trip. Leitinger opened to “another beautiful picture of my parents somewhere in Alaska,” and Martha Mackowiak instantly recognized the view, Letnikof Cove, something she sees daily while driving home.
“It’s just interesting to see that side of them that I didn’t really experience ever, it’s very sweet, sort of having a window into that chapter of their life,” Leitinger said.
Some newspaper archives mentioned how the Coast Guard asked Abshagen and Leitinger not to continue their trip.
“Almost every time you see a picture of it in the water, it looks like it could be sinking, it’s so low in the water,” Leitinger said. She said that her parents would only go out on calm water because of how low the boat sat.
Some parts of the historical journey were uncomfortable for Leitinger. During her parents’ trip, the couple were joined by Bob Broward, an architect from Jacksonville, Florida who traveled with them to Juneau. Leitinger said he brought a Confederate flag on the trip. When her parents landed in Juneau, they traded their Confederate flag to Gov. William Egan for an Alaska flag, she said.
Leitinger said finding the flag in pictures with her parents was difficult as it does not align with her values or what she would want to fly on a vehicle she’s bringing into a new place like Alaska. Her guess is that had her parents known what the flag symbolized, they would have not flown it. Abshagen’s father, Leitinger’s grandfather, was a part of the resistance against Hitler during World War II.
“That’s always the opportunity for human beings, to reflect deeply and learn from history and not make the same mistakes as others did in the past,” Leitinger said.
While looking through articles in the Alaska State Library in Juneau, Leitinger came across a story on the front page of the Ketchikan paper titled “Confederate Invasion.” The article read “the vanguard, the confederacy’s so-called invasion of Alaska, reached Ketchikan Monday, as a war surplus amphibious Jeep, carrying 3 adventuresome Jacksonville, Florida ‘soldiers’ completed a 90-mile water journey from Prince Rupert, B.C. The threesome, 2 men and a girl [my mother was like 36 at that time], pulled into Ketchikan Monday afternoon with the ‘stars and bars’ flying from the makeshift cabin on the Jeep.”
The article goes on to say that Jacksonville architect Bob Broward, as he set foot on Alaska’s soil, claimed, “ the South hasn’t forgotten,” according to the article. “The other members of the party, Hans Leitinger, an Austrian exchange student now living in Florida, and Miss Ilsa Abshagen, a Jacksonville geography teacher, laughingly told the customs and immigration officers that their mission really was peaceful.”
Leitinger said that reading this news article confirmed her suspicion of the lack of deeper understanding that her parents had about the Confederate flag.
Before showing people photos from her parents’ journey, Leitinger said she warns that they’re going to see the Confederate flag. The couple’s trip occurred three years before the Civil Rights Act was passed, meaning Jim Crow laws were still in effect in the South. Leitinger has yet to go through her mom’s manuscript but wonders if her mother touched on these events in her writing. One entry of her mother’s that she read on the ferry up to Haines described her parents camping on the side of the road in the South. While camped, Abshagen writes, cars would stop and point their headlights at them. Leitinger said that even as a white woman, her mother didn’t feel safe.
“The complicated part of this story of discovery is, what are the layers there of coming over as an immigrant, of coming into a country that has this history, trying to in some ways, escape a history of a fascist, authoritarian government,” Leitinger said.
After trading flags, the couple continued north without Broward.
Initially, Leitinger thought that her parents had sold the vehicle in Juneau, however after finding an online military vehicle forum, she discovered the car now lives in Anchorage. In a post from 2008, current owner of the vehicle Ralph Centoni recalled the couple’s trip. He wrote that the couple put their car on display at a local Anchorage hotel. Centoni’s friend asked Leitinger’s parents if the car was for sale and they agreed on a price.
“They took it over to Lake Hood and swam it across the lake,” Centoni wrote in 2008. The vehicle sat in his friend’s garage from 1961 to 1997, when Centoni purchased it. When he wrote the online entry, he said that he had been working on restoring it since 1997 and was about 85% finished at the time.
After reading the account, Leitinger reached out to the president of the Antique Auto Mushers of Alaska, who helped connect her with Centoni. Leitinger and her family were simultaneously on their way up to Anchorage for her husband’s work, when Leitinger made the connection with Centoni. He welcomed them into his garage, where the Ugly Duckling had been living for the past 29 years. After months of investigation, Leitinger was able to sit in her parents’ old vehicle and touch the car that was a main character in so many of their stories. Sitting in the car, she and her daughter Eva Sophia flipped through the binder of images, comparing dents they saw in person to the dents in the photos.
The vehicle built in 1942 had acquired a few dents during the multiple road trips, which helped Leitinger and her family solidify that it was her parents’ vehicle. She said she was overwhelmed when she first saw and touched the car. She said just putting her hand on it was like going through a space-time continuum, expecting to see her parents there on the other side.
“It was a way of sort of seeing my parents, and touching a little bit of that adventure that they took, and understanding it in a very concrete way,” Leitinger said.
Now, Leitinger has seen the Ugly Duckling with her own two eyes, in addition to having her mother’s detailed stories and photographs. Looking toward the future, Leitinger is unsure if she will publish her mother’s partially completed memoir or if she should write a book telling her parents’ story while also including her own personal discoveries along the way.
“There’s a parallel adventure that we’re on,” Leitinger said. “We’ve found it, we’ve touched it, we’ve sat in it.” For Leitinger, the story has been unfolding in real time.
Christiane Leitinger, left, and daughter Eva Sophia look through film photos from Ilse Abshagen and Hans Leitinger’s trip while seeing the Ugly Duckling in person in Anchorage on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Charley Shimanski, courtesy of Christiane Leitinger)
Ilse Abshagen leans against the parked Ugly Duckling in Haines in 1961. (Photo courtesy of Christiane Leitinger)
Hans Leitinger and Ilse Abshagen read a map in the Ugly Duckling in 1961. (Photo courtesy of Christiane Leitinger)
The post “The story is unfolding in real time” appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
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As we previously reported, Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested earlier this week.
The brothers — who have built a massive audience by posting “manosphere” content online — were detained by Federal Marshals in Miami and may soon be extradited to the UK to face trial on 59 rape and sex trafficking charges.
But as of this writing, they’re still in the US — and it seems that Andrew is not too thrilled with their circumstances.
“I am being held in SHU, the highest level of security which exists,” reads a post that appeared on Tate’s X (formerly Twitter) account today.
“No commissary. No visits. No contact with the outside world. My neighbor is a cannibal who screams throughout the night.”
We don’t know how Tate is managing to convey that message if he has “no contact with the outside world.”
Numerous commenters (and a scathing community note) have pointed out that social media is, indeed, contact with the outside world.
We don’t imagine that Tate is actually tweeting from his cell, but clearly, he’s been in contact with a friend or assistant who is sharing his message.
And the tweets didn’t stop there!
“The system is millions of innocent people “just doing their jobs” to create an oppressive force of evil,” Tate continued, adding:
“Like daisies, individually sweet, but arranged to draw the face of satan.”
He also noted that the UK has a history of protecting accused predators like Prince Andrew, not prosecuting them.
“If I was really a sexual predator like grooming gangs, Prince Andrew, BBC Presenters, or Lord Mandelson (Epstein’s Best Friend),” he wrote, adding:
“The British Police would not be hunting me around the globe. They would be protecting me.”
Broken clock, and whatnot. But just because the UK has yet to prosecute royal Andrew, that doesn’t mean that grifter Andrew is innocent.
That would be like saying a US jury let OJ off the hook; therefore, every murder conviction in this country is invalid.
In any event, Andrew and Tristan are facing some very serious allegations, and if extradited and convicted, they could face life sentences.
The brothers were previously jailed in Romania, and the decision to allow them entry to the US was highly controversial.
Now, it sounds like the Tates will finally go in front of a judge. And he probably won’t be any more sympathetic to Andrew’s plight than Twitter was.
Andrew Tate Complains About Inhumane Conditions and ‘Cannibals’ In Prison, … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Matt Whitman, Leslie Evenden, Michelle Drucker, Steve Williams four bikers and friend Ori Badajos on a bikepacking trip to Denali.
Matt Whitman and Leslie Evenden are back from a five-night “bike packing” trip to Denali. They pedaled about 20 miles a day with former Haines residents Michelle Drucker and Steve Williams, viewing bears, moose, sheep and caribou on the trip. The bikes were outfitted with a bear barrel on the front of the cycle for food storage. They cooked and camped every night. Following the adventure all four met up in Fairbanks for dinner with Sara and Richard Chapell. The Chapells were in Fairbanks working on their cabin as well as attending a hosted discussion with the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The conversation was cut short by an unspecified emergency the Justice had to attend to, but she did speak for roughly 30 minutes about her early influences and experiences coming up in her career. Jackson is the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
And speaking of the Evendens, their dog Nori went on something of a staycation while they were gone. According to new CVN reporter Lizzy Hahn, who was tasked with watching her, Nori first disappeared from Evenden’s home for a day. After Hahn spent the evening wandering down the street with a leash, dog treats and a squeaky toy, she discovered that Nori had made her way down to Darsie and Courtney Culbecks’ Mud Bay home, a favorite hangout. Later on Nori disappeared from
Culbecks’ home and a call was put out via social media and a listener personal on KHNS seeking her return. All’s well that ends well, though, as Evenden said Nori is safe and sound at home with her and Whitman now.
And on the subject of dogs, the dog walkers and sitters of the community shared their tips for finding elusive hounds. Bryce Wortman might be Haines’ premier pet sitter. He has a client named Goose who has two different colored eyes. He says that you know by the way she looks at you if the Goose is on the loose. The best way he has for getting her back is to pick up Kim Larson’s dogs and inspire Goose to follow the dog pack.
Gabe Long has no problem getting dogs to approach him. He says that a big hairy malamute visits him at his yard twice daily. The dog is named Bodhi, short for Bodhisittva. Long says that Bodhi offers a path to enlightenment, just as the name implies.
Zombie, a 12-year-old Shiba Inu, is learning a new trick, riding on a motorcycle with some help from his human, Karla Peña. Peña is in Haines for work for a few months and has been enjoying the training on the Honda XR15L. She says that Zombie tolerated the doggles (that’s goggles for dogs…) and the motorcycle backpack was the next logical step. Peña said she started him out with just a few miles at a time and is increasing his riding time.
Zombie, on a motorcycle with owner Karla Peña on the Haines Highway.
Beau and Zane Bradley recently arrived home from a trip to Valencia, Spain. While there, Beau Bradley participated in the Gay Games XII placing second in the 50-meter butterfly, fifth in 50-meter freestyle and fourth in 100-meter freestyle.
They experienced record-breaking temperatures during a stop in Germany, fresh-squeezed Valencia orange juice from the legendary OJ capital of the world and came home with a couple of new tattoos to remember the adventure.
Chrissie White and Aly Zeiger combined their birthday party plans this year. They hosted a hobbit-themed celebration at Portage Cove last weekend, transforming the spot into the Shire on a sunny afternoon, overflowing with hobbit hospitality. There were flowing skirts, cloaks, waistcoats, plenty of crowns of flowers and a friendly croquet tournament. The “master of the mallet” (or winner of the croquet match), Ryan Eckert played the game on stilts while in character as Gandalf, complete with extended croquet mallet.
A sunny summer day and the opening of the Southeast Alaska State Fair just around the corner inspired Maren Billings to get into the lemonade business in downtown Haines. Her brother Oliver Billings helped for the low, low price of a $20 gift card for the Bookstore that Maren had on hand. Oliver Billings said he has previous experience selling lemonade with his friend Milo Beck. Oryn Stanford and Ava Stanford also assisted in the operation, refilling lemonade and snickerdoodle cookies.
Maren Billings said that she originally wanted to raise money to buy a cat but recently learned that she could get a pig for $250. The other kids said they wanted to save money to spend at the fair. ds said they wanted to save money to spend at the fair.
The post Duly Noted: Dogs and bikes and other fun stuff appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
There will be a celebration of life for Ruth Dick, 76, on Aug. 1 at 3 p.m. in the Haines ANB Hall. A potluck featuring her favorite dish, chicken adobo, will follow. She died peacefully June 5 at the Sitka Pioneer Home, where she had lived for four years.
“It was just her time,” said daughter Rhonda Degtoff. Dick lived most of her life in Haines. She was a L’uknax.ádi (coho salmon) of the Raven moiety.
She loved her family, the singer Tom Jones, forget-me-nots, watching Native dancing and being with friends.
“Ruth was an ‘up’ kind of person,” said friend Doris Bell. She liked to lead her friends in singing “You Are My Sunshine.” “She had some hard knocks and kept soldiering on with a smile on her face and a little hat on her head,” Bell said.
Dick was a member of ANS Camp 5, the Chilkoot Indian Association, the American Legion Unit 12 Auxiliary and enjoyed volunteering at the Salvation Army Thrift Store.
Ruth Dick was born July 29,1949 in Juneau. Her parents were Mary Young and Richard A. Dick Sr. She grew up in foster care in Hoonah and did not have fond memories, her daughter said.
“Both my parents recalled beatings for speaking their language.” Because of that, Dick did not identify with her culture until later in life and then it brought her joy, Degtoff said
She married Randolph Williams Sr. in October 1968 and had the first of her four children the following year. She spent much of her life as a single parent. Degtoff’s earliest memories of her mother are in Juneau, climbing the steep stairs up the hill to their apartment, carrying groceries.
“She had all the bags and a baby on her hip, corralling three little ones. “I’m proud of her,” Degtoff said. “She was a great mom.”
She leaves brothers Wes and Paul Dick; children Rhonda Degtoff of Haines, Mary Uyanik of Juneau, Randy Williams Jr. of Juneau and Manette Hogue of Juneau; grandchildren Adam Williams, Nicholas Degtoff, Meganne Clarke, Ashley Williams, Sam Uyanik and Rebecca and Eliza Hogue.
Her brother Richard Dick preceded her in death.
Donations toward funeral expenses are gratefully accepted at the service on Aug. 1, or at P.O. Box 316.
The post Memorial service scheduled for longtime resident Ruth Dick appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
Tucker Wetmore continues to heat up summer with his latest anthem, “Who Told You That,” which documents his attempt at keeping his reputation as a romantic intact with his newfound love interest.
Penned by Jordan Schmidt, Ashley Gorley, Hunter Phelps and Michael Tyler, the upbeat track finds Wetmore addressing the assumptions that he’s a heartbreaker who can’t commit. He makes his case, stating that that there’s more to him than the rumors and promises to prove that he’s actually the kind of guy to bring his woman breakfast in bed, take long walks on the beach and put his heart on full display.
As soon as the tune begins, fans are greeted with a dance-worthy, flirtatious melody that’s fueled by the country star’s breezy vocals and laid-back delivery. The track creates an easygoing yet heartfelt listening experience that makes it hard not to believe everything the character at hand is saying.
The chorus serves as Wetmore’s main plea to not be defined by the talk circulating around the town. Instead of letting their weightless words tell his story, he highlights the ways he would show up for her.
“I’ll take a walk on the beach/ I’ll write your name in the sand/ Ain’t no romantic in me/ I don’t know who told you that/ I’ll bring you breakfast in bed/ Mimosas up in your glass/ Treat you like my Juliet/ I don’t know who told you that/ I’m that guy, who’s gonna end it with a bad goodbye/ They love to lie/ ‘Cause baby, I’ll make you mine/ Put single me in the past/ They say you’re wasting your time/ I don’t know who told you that.”
“Who Told You That” earned the No. 1 most-added song at County radio upon its release with 89 first-week stations. The milestone marks Wetmore’s largest add date of his career as the single debuts at No. 54 on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase chart.
This week, Wetmore also announced his new six-song Sunburn Mixtape, that’s set to drop July 31 via Back Blocks Music/MCA/Mercury Records. The collection will combine three previously released fan favorites, “Who Told You That,” “Sunburn” and “Proving Me Right,” with three brand new tracks, “Crazy To Yourself,” “98%” and“YOURS.”
The Washington native will head back on the road beginning next month to launch the second leg of his Brunette World Tour. In September he will also join Brooks & Dunn for select dates, including a stop at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on September 12.
The post Tucker Wetmore Addresses Heartbreaker Reputation On New Single, ‘Who Told You That’ appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
Lane Kiffin is the answer. I mean it, and it’s true. Lane Kiffin is the answer. He’s the answer to who the clown — excuse me, crown prince of college football is after he both pulled off a genuinely legacy-defining feat and almost immediately managed to trample it in the Mississippi mud on his way to the swamp in Baton Rouge. Lane Kiffin is the answer… Or the folks at LSU sure as hell hope he is, after shelling out $54 million to former head coach Brian Kelly to make way for Kiffin, paying Kiffin bonuses for a College Football Playoff he didn’t coach in, handing him a reported $40 million to acquire the roster he believes he needs to be competitive and insisting on making him the highest-paid head coach in the history of the sport who hasn’t won a damn thing. It’s not just that Kiffin is one of three college football coaches raking in at least $13 million annually; the other two are Kirby Smart and Curt Cignetti, who have won three of the last six national titles. It’s also that Kiffin makes more annually than Ohio State coach Ryan Day and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who also share three CFP national titles between them. Hell, even an assistant on Kiffin’s staff, Ed Orgeron, won a national title as head coach. Yet, Kiffin hasn’t even led a team to the SEC championship and once got booted from Nick Saban’s Alabama staff because he was too distracted to do the job. Kiffin is the answer… for exactly who Tennessee fans loathe most among SEC coaches because he abandoned them after one humiliating season to head west to USC. Kiffin is the answer… to the future Jeopardy clue, “Al Davis openly called this former Oakland Raiders coach a ‘professional liar.’” Kiffin is the answer… for who Kirby Smart believes is the “Adonis of all college football coaches,” like he’s never heard of Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who is, without a dollop of doubt, the most attractive head coach in the sport, and it ain’t close. (Sorry, Deion Sanders.) Kiffin is the answer… for how Ole Miss coach Pete Golding informed folks at SEC Media Days on Wednesday that he was able to recruit star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy to remain Rebels and not defect to the Tigers. “Just Google ‘Lane Kiffin,’”Golding told them. “A dude that they would have built a statue of here three days ago. Google his name right now. They wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire, right? And so they’re going to do the same thing to y’all two if you do what?” What a damnable fact. And yet there are many of those around Kiffin. Even Florida coach Jon Sumrall sought to put some distance between himself and comparisons to Kiffin on Wednesday. “How you walk into a place says a lot about you, and how you leave says even more,” Sumrall said. In November 2025, Kiffin held Ole Miss and LSU hostage. He demanded to coach the Rebels through the College Football Playoff, his legacy defining event, and wanted to accept the job at LSU. Folks at Ole Miss, within their rights and having some self-respect, said, No, you’re either coaching Oxford or Baton Rouge in December. You ain’t doing both. Sumrall faced a similar set of circumstances as he had coached Tulane to an invitation to the CFP while accepting the head-coaching job at UF. But there is a difference not just between the two jobs each coach was leaving but in how each of their former programs think of their respective character. “Lane and I talked as we were going through it,” Sumrall said at SEC Media Days. “He’s like, ‘You and I are going through the same thing in November.’ I’m like, ‘No, Lane, we’re not. If you leave, you’re leaving an SEC school to go to SEC school. It’s a little different. I’m leaving Tulane.’ It was challenging to do it. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I may have been on the front end of taking this job, maybe not been at my best every second for Florida because I wanted to make sure I left Tulane the right way. “If any university had told me I couldn’t coach in the playoff game, I don’t think I’d have taken the job just because I couldn’t leave the team I had coached all year.” In comparison, Kiffin walked away from a team he’d coached all year, a team that was four games from winning the national title, for a bag of money and a bit more prestige. He also walked away from an opportunity to show maturity, growth and an appreciation for where his feet were — principles most coaches claim to impart to their players — at a moment when adulation for him and the mountain Ole Miss had climbed was at an all-time high. Lane Kiffin’s move to LSU will be a failure this season if the Tigers don’t win the national title after the price they paid for him, Kelly and their 2026 roster. But I sense Tigers fans can live with that. I wonder, will they be able to live with his inevitable exit, which will probably be messy, immature and bombastic? Lane Kiffin is the answer for whom many of us hope our college football coaches don’t become, and I sincerely wish that wasn’t so.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
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