Power ranking Lane Kiffin's ugliest coaching exits

The Lane Kiffin saga, drawn out over more than a month, finally came to an end on Sunday.

The six-year Ole Miss coach departed Oxford ahead of a College Football Playoff run to become the head coach at LSU, wrapping up one of the wildest and most dramatic coaching carousel storylines in recent memory.

Naturally, the circumstances of Kiffin's exit from Ole Miss have been more than a bit awkward, and there will not be any love lost for him from his former fanbase as he heads west to join a rival from the old SEC West. For Kiffin, however, such exits are nothing new.

The 50-year-old has lived quite a few coaching lives in this sport, and more often than not, he has left jobs under less-than-ideal circumstances. With yet another ugly exit added to his portfolio, here's a full and comprehensive power ranking of Kiffin's ugly job exits, from the least ugly to the ugliest.

5. Fired at Alabama by Nick Saban

Kiffin was hired by the Crimson Tide in 2014 as legendary coach Nick Saban looked to modernize an offense that had fallen behind some of his SEC peers, most notably Gus Malzahn at Auburn. Kiffin did just that, helping lead the Crimson Tide to three-straight College Football Playoff appearances from 2014-16, including a national title in 2015.

Alabama found itself playing for a national title again in 2016, but Kiffin — who had already accepted the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic — was dismissed by Saban ahead of the national title game after he elected to stay on through the end of the season.

Getting fired by a legend ahead of a national title game is a tough way to go out, but given the fact that Kiffin was leaving a coordinator job for a head coaching decision and that Alabama ultimately lost the championship game to Clemson with new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, history has mostly vindicated Kiffin in this instance.

4. Fired for cause by the Oakland Raiders

Kiffin became the youngest head coach in modern NFL history at age 31 in 2007 with the Oakland Raiders, but his brief tenure was most memorable for how it ended. Just 20 games into his tenure with a 5-15 record, Kiffin was fired by then-owner Al Davis after Davis reportedly attempted to force Kiffin to resign.

He was ultimately fired for cause, with Davis later branding Kiffin a "liar." Kiffin quickly accepted the Tennessee head coaching job and proceeded to further burn bridges in Oakland when he poached members of the Raiders coaching staff before the end of the NFL season to join him in Knoxville.

Kiffin's departure from Oakland certainly wasn't pretty, but the fact that it ranks this low is a testament to how ugly some of his other exits have been.

3. A midnight escape from Knoxville

Kiffin's tenure at Tennessee was brief and bombastic. He quickly made headlines for calling out (and later apologizing to) Florida coach Urban Meyer for alleged recruiting violations.

On the field, however, things weren't particularly memorable. Kiffin's team finished 7-6 in 2009 — a slight improvement from a 5-7 season the prior year — before departing in January 2010 after just one season to return to USC, where he previously served as an assistant under Pete Carroll.

Kiffin made the surprising and ill-advised decision to hold a now-infamous press conference in Knoxville the night of his departure. The response from the Tennessee faithful was, predictably, not exactly overjoyed. Riots and protests on campus led to responses from the police and fire departments, and when asked to describe Kiffin's time in Knoxville, the then-athletics director simply called it "brief."

2. Left on the tarmac by USC

Kiffin's tenure in Los Angeles was likely doomed from the start. Just months after he took the job at USC, the school was hit with hefty sanctions from the NCAA as a result of the investigation into Reggie Bush. Under postseason ban, the Trojans went 8-5 in 2010 and 10-2 in 2011.

However, with the sanctions lifted, USC finished 7-6 as the preseason No. 1 team in 2012. Following a loss to Arizona State that dropped the Trojans to 3-2 to begin the 2013 season, Kiffin was pulled off the bus when his team arrived back at Los Angeles International Airport in the middle of the night and fired inside the terminal.

The bus ultimately left with Kiffin's bags in tow but no Kiffin. It was an iconic college football moment that is still invoked more than a decade later with calls to leave a coach on the tarmac after bad losses.

It was an ugly exit we thought would never be topped. And yet...

1. Salting the earth at Ole Miss on the way out the door

Kiffin's departure from Ole Miss was certainly well telegraphed. Amid pursuits from LSU and Florida, Kiffin declined to sign a lucrative contract extension to stay in Oxford for weeks. Still, it was hard to foresee just how ugly his exit would ultimately be.

After it became clear that he was leaving for Baton Rouge, the biggest question left to be answered was whether Kiffin would get his wish of coaching Ole Miss in the CFP. According to multiple reports, Kiffin gave Ole Miss an ultimatum: allow him to coach through the end of the season, or he would poach the offensive staff and roster before the CFP began.

Kiffin also reportedly told his staffers they wouldn't have spots on his LSU staff if they didn't join him on the plane to Baton Rouge.

Leaving a school where he was on the path to becoming a legend ahead of a CFP run would likely be enough to earn the top spot on these rankings by itself, but given his reported attempts to tear down the program on his way out the door, Kiffin's latest ugly exit seems to be his magnum opus.

At least, until it all goes up in flames at LSU in a few years.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Lane Kiffin's ugly coaching exits, power ranked by ugliness