Lane Kiffin’s wild ride on college coaching carousel turns controversial

Does Kiffin stay in Oxford, where he’s won an unprecedented 50 games through his first six seasons at Ole Miss and built momentum as the self-styled “Portal King” amid this new collegiate football landscape of NIL dollars and unlimited free agency?

Or does Kiffin take a job at Florida or LSU? The Gators and Tigers are among the 12 programs that have celebrated national championships this millennium and are desperate enough to promise the current Rebels coach enough funding to ensure the resources are in place for more.

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Credit: AP

Kiffin could be coaching his final game for the Rebels when they play at Mississippi State on Nov. 28. Or, there remains a chance he stays put in the 11th hour, similar to his last-minute decision not to take the Auburn head coaching job in 2022.

Ole Miss responded to the Auburn threat by filling the donation box coffers for Kiffin, enabling the rising coaching star to overcome his checkered past and turn the Rebels into a championship contender with impact transfer players acquired via the free agent nature of the portal.

Bought in

Ole Miss bought in on Kiffin when other major programs passed and has been rewarded with tremendous success ever since.

But at the time of the hire, on Dec. 7, 2019, there were questions about Kiffin’s coaching past going back to his time with the Oakland Raiders when former owner Al Davis made him the youngest head coaching hire of the modern era (31) in 2007.

Davis, a controversial football figure himself, once equated Kiffin to being a con artist.

Then there was Kiffin’s Tennessee coaching debacle, when the late-Mike Hamilton hired Kiffin in 2008 partly on the credibility of his well-respected, now-deceased NFL assistant coaching icon Monte Kiffin (2024), who served as his son’s defensive coordinator.

Kiffin departed Knoxville amid a rushed, late-night press conference after just one season for his “dream job” at USC.

Kiffin’s tenure left the Volunteers program under the cloud of an NCAA investigation and sanctions that the next coach, Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, could not overcome in his three-year tenure, as probation and penalties carried into the 2013 season.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Kiffin’s time with the Trojans, meanwhile, was anything but a dream after returning to the once-powerhouse program he helped build under Pete Carroll (2001-06). Kiffin’s coaching tenure in Los Angeles came to a well-documented end when he was fired on an airport tarmac after a 62-41 loss to Arizona State in September 2013.

That’s when Nick Saban stepped in and essentially rehabilitated Kiffin’s coaching career, hiring him as Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2014 — Kiffin’s offensive genius was not and is not debatable, even if his character has at times been in question.

Back in the corner office

After the 2016 season, and a second national championship with Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Kiffin was back in the head coaching ranks at Florida Atlantic for three seasons before Jimmy Sexton worked a deal for him to take over the Ole Miss program.

This, even though influential and well-respected Ole Miss legend Archie Manning has been known to have his doubts about the methodology of the colorful, and often controversial, 50-year-old Kiffin.

Kiffin has no problem with the spotlight, even now, when asked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution if he’s comfortable operating under the amount of scrutiny that’s accompanied his coaching future.

“No, because …. my schedule is the same, I mean, wake up at 4 or 5 and go to yoga, and come to the office all day long,” Kiffin said. “I don’t really go anywhere …. So my day’s exactly the same.”

Except now there are questions about what’s next, at every turn, most every day.

“Do I expect to coach next week?” Kiffin asked rhetorically on one of the many instances he was pressed for details on his future on the SEC teleconference. “Why would I not expect to coach next week?”

Reporting out of Oxford indicates Ole Miss does not plan to allow for Kiffin to coach the Rebels through the College Football Playoff if he is still entertaining job offers.

A systematic problem

The rationale behind the push for Kiffin to decide on his coaching future is that the college football calendar simply does not allow for a delay. The early signing date for recruits is Dec. 3-5, and the transfer portal window is set for Jan. 2-16, and both are paramount to effective team building.

Kiffin has denied he has been given an ultimatum by Ole Miss, but ESPN sources have confirmed Kiffin and Sexton have been asked for a resolution by this weekend.

Ole Miss, with a win over Mississippi State in the “Egg Bowl” rivalry on Nov. 28, will at the very least clinch a home College Football Playoff game on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20.

With a win there, the Rebels would advance to the quarterfinals on Dec. 31 (Cotton Bowl) or Jan. 1 (Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl).

And, with a win there — by no means a stretch, considering Ole Miss led Georgia by two scores in Athens before falling 43-35 — a CFP Championship Game appearance on Jan. 19, which would make for a chaotic transition period.

Sooner or later, there was going to be a situation where the sitting coach at a championship program would be faced with this awkward timing, with seemingly no good answer.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

“There’s a systematical problem,” Kiffin said of the timeline. “And it used to be the players were in it (considering transfers), and they still are a little bit with the portal timing and playoffs….

“Until something changes, it’s gonna be an issue for years.”

The question remains

So does Kiffin leave a program while it’s still contending for a national title?

Or, does Kiffin elect to stay at Ole Miss and watch other coaches take over at high-ceiling schools like LSU and/or Florida and take advantage of the in-state recruiting riches and championship cultures in place?

Money would not seem to be the issue, as Ole Miss sources indicated to ESPN the Rebels will match any offer put forth by LSU or Florida.

Kiffin’s $9 million salary, which feature the potential for another $2.6 million in bonuses, ranks 10th in the FBS ranks and fifth in the SEC, behind Kirby Smart ($13.3 million), Texas’ Steve Sarkisian ($10.8 million), Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer ($10.3 million) and former LSU coach Brian Kelly ($10.2 million), who was fired on Oct. 26.

Kiffin’s next salary could be north of $13 million, according to LSU beat reporter Wilson Alexander.

Smart, a close friend and confidant of Kiffin’s, chuckled when asked by the AJC at his Monday press conference how he would sort out what’s on Kiffin’s plate.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

“No idea,” said Smart, whose standing as a former Georgia player and championship coach has brought stability that rests on the opposite end of the spectrum from Kiffin’s uncertainty.

“You’re asking me to comment on something that I wouldn’t be the expert of, I don’t want to be the expert of, and I don’t have room in my head to consume the information and process it,” Smart said. “To each his own, is all I can tell you.”

David Pollack, another Georgia football legend and former ESPN "College GameDay" analyst, isn’t sure Kiffin knows for sure what’s next at this stage.

“I think Lane is torn like crazy, because he’s finally found true happiness,” Pollack said on his “See Ball Get Ball” podcast.

“And then you have an elite job (opening) in college football … you think about LSU, they’ve won despite their coach, they’ve won national championships with Ed Orgeron and Les Miles …”

And then there was the championship Saban brought to LSU in 2003.

Saban — even at 74 years old and two seasons into his coaching retirement, a sought-after name on most every program’s wish list — is likely the only person who can comprehend the circus environment that surrounds Kiffin.

Saban was at the heart of the last coaching search that drew this much attention, back in 2006, when Saban told the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 21 that, “I guess I have to say it, I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”

Saban had become a hot commodity by going 48-16 in five seasons at LSU, winning the 2003 BCS national championship.

The Tide athletic administration refused to give in, and Saban was ultimately hired to coach Alabama on Jan. 4, 2007, with super agent Sexton negotiating a now-famous contract that had LSU guarantee him he would be the college football’s highest-paid college football coach if he led the Tigers to a national championship.

Saban influence

Almost 18 years later, a source has told national award-winning writer Glenn Guilbeau at Tiger Rag that “Through Jimmy Sexton, Nick is telling Lane that LSU is the job for him if he wants to win a national championship, and that it’s better than Florida because of the recruiting base in Louisiana, and LSU is the only major program in the state.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Indeed, the formula worked for Les Miles and Ed Orgeron, neither of which were the most decorated or celebrated before their LSU championship tenures.

Kiffin, in his quest for information and feedback, had his family flown to Baton Rouge and Gainesville this week on what amounted to widely reported reconnaissance visits, bringing more uncertainty to his status at Ole Miss.

At the very least, Kiffin was asked to confirm, it must be flattering to be courted by three programs.

“It doesn’t feel good on this call,” Kiffin joked. “Somehow it got spun really negatively.

“If programs want your coach, that should be looked at as an amazing thing, and a great thing by your fans,” Kiffin said. “If programs want your coach because you’re 10-1, and (had) three 10-win seasons in a row, which has never been done at Ole Miss before, is that a good thing that other programs want your coach because your program’s experienced success it’s never had?

“Or would you rather be 5-6 or 6-5 or something right now, and no one wants your coach?”

Coaching carousel

The demand and stakes have arguably never been higher, as college football has experienced a coaching carousel like never before, with four SEC coaches fired midseason and Penn State — the third musketeer to Ohio State and Michigan in the Big Ten ranks — firing James Franklin after a precipitous fall from the preseason top five ranks.

“I think everyone else is creating expectations that are unrealistic,” SEC Network analyst Chris Doering said. “I don’t understand why anyone would be upset his family took visits; he’s actually taking into consideration what it might look like for his family, and that’s a responsible thing to do.

“Fans are holding coaches to a different level of expectations than they hold themselves.”

Kiffin, for the moment, said he’ll continue to stick with his strategy of not discussing other jobs, stay in close contact with his athletic director, Keith Carter, and keep his football focus on his Ole Miss team during this bye week.

“Keith and I have a great relationship, we communicate daily on a lot of things, and I love it here, and it’s been amazing,” Kiffin said. “We’re in a season that’s the greatest run in the history of Ole Miss at this point.

“Having never been at this point, I think it’s really exciting. I think Saturday night (a 34-24 win over Florida) was amazing, and so I’m just living in the moment that it’s amazing, and our players are too,” he said.

“You know, I see their joy about the season, where they’re at, and to have so much on the line. It’s just awesome to be a part of.”