As the Lane Kiffin rumor mill continues to churn, Ole Miss still has plenty left on the schedule. A win over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl would seal a College Football Playoff bid – and Joel Klatt said things could get messy, depending on what The Rebels coach decides for his future.
Kiffin’s name is front and center during this coaching cycle, specifically at LSU and Florida, and On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed his family visited both Baton Rouge and Gainesville over the weekend. Kiffin also shot down the idea of an “ultimatum” to give Ole Miss a decision.
But Klatt argued fans would know if Kiffin wanted to stay in Oxford by now, saying he would have already signed an extension. Since that hasn’t happened yet, Klatt thinks the situation could get dicey if he winds up leaving before the CFP.
“Here’s the thing: If he wanted to stay, he would stay and we would have already known it,” Klatt told Colin Cowherd on The Herd. “Look at all the other coaches around the country that have said they’re staying or signed extensions. And Ole Miss, I know, has told him money is not a factor here. Whatever you get offered, we will match it. So it’s not that he’s going to make more somewhere else, which is starting to lead me to believe – and again, I will fully own I have been all over the map on this and Lane. But Lane is a unique cat.
“Now, I don’t know if he can come back to Ole Miss. You can’t lead them on for this long. Now, there’s going to start to be animus. Like, ‘Why aren’t you signing an extension? What’s the problem?’ I think he’s going to Florida – I really do. I think he’s going to Florida and I think he’s going to be the next coach of the Gators, and I think that we’re going to have one of the biggest messes in college football history go down before the Playoff when Lane Kiffin steps away from a College Football Playoff team and goes to coach another team.”
Ole Miss is on a bye this week, taking a 10-1 record into next week’s season finale against Mississippi State on Black Friday. When asked whether he plans to coach in that game, Kiffin made it abundantly clear he has every intention to be on the sideline. He also reiterated he does not plan on addressing open jobs across the country.
“I mean, I’ve been saying the same thing for six years: I’m not speaking on other jobs. I’m focused on this one,” Kiffin said on the SEC coaches teleconference. “… I don’t even understand what the question is. Of course I’m coaching. Unless you guys know something I don’t, or I’m getting fired and I don’t know it.”