Ole Miss, LSU, Florida sweat Kiffin decision. So I did hot yoga with him

OXFORD, MS – College football’s most-wanted man started his day Friday like any other.

There were about 30 people in The Grind and Ground hot yoga class. It’s a daily class at Studio 432, tucked behind the busiest street in Oxford: Jackson Avenue. It usually starts at 6 a.m., but Friday classes start at 6:30.

Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin doesn’t skip hot yoga. Not even on the morning of road games.

Not even when he is the central figure in a national coaching search turned soap opera.

Not even when his choice between leading Ole Miss, LSU or Florida may be clarified in a meeting with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter later in the day.

Inside a Lane Kiffin hot yoga class

Kiffin looks mellow when he puts his yoga mat down. No. 6 Ole Miss (10-1, 6-1 SEC) is on an open week before playing at rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl on Nov. 28 (noon, EST, ABC).

He’s one of the last class participants to trickle in. I don’t blame him. Moments before he found an open space in the middle of the back row, a few mats down from me, I was wondering why I’d gotten in position so early. 

The studio is about the size of a two-car garage. It’s intentionally humid, and there’s red lights and mirrors on three sides. It feels like unloading the back of a sun-baked 18-wheeler in July. It’s a feeling I was acquainted with during my high school summer job at a warehouse.

I glanced at the thermostat once. I think it said 106. I’m told Kiffin occasionally walks over and bumps it up. Mercifully, not today.

Kiffin entered carrying a Smartwater. I came in with a strawberry-grape BodyArmor. Both of us have rented mats and towels from the front desk. Five bucks, cash, for a soft place to push through the hour-long class.

Our instructor, Daniella, is energetic. As the class starts, my shirt becomes quickly intolerable. Daniella read us a poem from Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Poems and Prayers’ book. She has a signed copy.

The first line felt applicable for a college football coach making a multi-million dollar life decision. Something about pushing through obstacles, and hills being easier after you’ve done the hard work of walking up one. It’s hard to remember specifics when in a plank position.

Why Lane Kiffin does hot yoga

Kiffin goes off script in the class. I guess it’s what makes him a preeminent play caller. Sometimes he rattles off some pushups when others are twisting in a pose. One time he walked over to another football staffer to chat.

It’s probably hard to shake his coaching nature. At the hardest part of the class — I think Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ had just finished playing — Kiffin clapped in encouragement. Others followed.

Daniella called out encouragement and tips while leading the class. There was a, ‘Good job, coach’ in there. One time I even heard a, ‘Nice, Sam.’

Kiffin has been in Oxford for six seasons. It’s the longest stop in his career, and the place he decided to change his lifestyle. He has cut out alcohol and transformed his body.

‘(Hot yoga) has helped me a lot in life,’ Kiffin said Nov. 12. ‘Five years ago when I made a decision to make some changes, I kind of got addicted to how good it felt to make certain changes. And then, how far can you go? Now I have a lot of non-negotiable in my life that require extreme discipline that can’t change by circumstances, or what’s going on in a day.’

We rest for the last two minutes of the class. We are asked to meditate, and I can imagine what Kiffin is pondering. Cold towels dipped in essential oil are distributed and the class ends.

The one guarantee in Kiffin’s looming decision is that he will disappoint two fan bases. He’ll shake up lives and businesses. One member of our class, Ashley Freeman, remarked to me she woke up last night wondering if Kiffin would leave. She’s a business owner in Oxford. The fate of Kiffin has been the default conversation in town.

I had a brief moment with Kiffin as we returned our mats and threw soaked towels into the laundry bin. He has said in the past he likes hot yoga because it’s the hardest thing he’ll do all day.

‘Is this the hardest thing you’ll do today?’ I asked.

Kiffin smiled.

‘Yeah, usually,’ Kiffin said. ‘For most people. Except when you’ve had days like mine lately.’

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_