By Hunt Palmer
Dozens of coaching searches play out in public about this time every year, and none of them look like this.
The reason for that is that none of them involve this central character. Lane Kiffin is unique.
He was the youngest head coach in NFL history. One year later the owner called him a liar and fired him. Kiffin accused Urban Meyer of cheating in a press conference at Tennessee, left there after one year, got fired at the airport by USC and sent to Boca Raton a week before the national championship game ending his time at Alabama.
Public disputes are kind of his thing, but it feels like he hates them. That’s Lane Kiffin.
In this massively public game of poker, Kiffin is the only one still holding cards.
Florida dropped its hand on the table weeks ago. LSU anted up recently. Kiffin has seen Ole Miss’s hand.
He determines the winner. He’s just not ready to play.
Very little in this wild week has been obvious, but what does qualify is Kiffin’s desire to coach Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff. He’s worked his entire career to have a shot at a championship, and that’s here.
His program is four or five games from a national title.
My feeling on the entire situation is that his view on the liklihood of that run will dictate his next move. If he feels like this team is good enough to make a push, he’ll see it through and reject something of a dream to be the head coach at a traditional power like LSU or Florida.
If he feels like this is a good team that ultimately wouldn’t stack up with Ohio State in January, then he probably thinks he’s hit his head on the ceiling in Oxford. That would trigger an exit.
While he’s making that decision, everyone is staring at him. And he’s not doing himself any favors.
His words and actions don’t add up.
On one hand, he’s tweeting about being in “Starksville” for the Egg Bowl and playing dumb when asked about whether or not he’ll be there to coach.
“Do I expect to coach next week? Why would I not expect to coach next week?” Kiffin said. “I expected to coach against Florida, too. So, I don’t even understand the question how I would not expect to coach next week. Why would I be at work?”
On the other, he’s flatly refusing to address his future in Oxford.
At the pinnacle of his coaching career, he’s willingly allowing the biggest distraction in the country to linger, fester and spoil it. That could all be cleared up with one phone call and a stroke of a pen.
He knows that. Ole Miss fans know that. Everyone knows that.
His refusal to do so suggests he’s looking elsewhere. So do the flights his family took to Gainesville and Baton Rouge over the weekend.
When Kiffin took the Ole Miss job, it was a stepping stone for him to get to one of the traditional SEC powers. The Rebels are one of three 1992 league members without a trip to an SEC Championship Game. Prior to his arrival, they Rebels had won 10 games twice since 1972. Small stadium. Losing culture. Little Ole Miss.
He would have been hard-pressed to see the complete shift coming in college football. NIL regulations and the transfer portal have allowed Ole Miss to procure elite level talent while the giants of the sport struggle to maintain the depth that kept schools like Ole Miss locked out of the national conversation for decades.
Now, the Rebels are in it.
The other factor is the early signing period which was only two years old when Kiffin was hired. That has expedited the coaching carousel. Hires that were once made in mid-December or January are now trickling into late November.
A decision he thought would be easy when he took the Ole Miss job looks a hell of a lot different now.
Ultimately, this comes down to Kiffin.
His refusal to diffuse the situation suggests his interest in exploring options. His steadfastness in coaching Ole Miss next week suggests his interest in a playoff push.
Something has to give.
Until then, Kiffin holds the cards.
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