Lane Kiffin Can GTFO

Instead of writing about how Ole Miss is now 10-1, all but guaranteed a playoff spot, heading into the Egg Bowl in Nov. 29, today I have to write about how head coach Lane Kiffin is most likely not going to be coaching Ole Miss in this playoff game at all, after weeks of holding Ole Miss hostage while his agent, Jimmy Sexton I believe, goes about getting him the most money possible from another college football program and/or an NFL team.

Where else in business is a contract treated as a mere suggestion, as it is in college football? After all, Kiffin’s current deal at Ole Miss is paying him 9 million a year, with another 3 million in bonuses for winning, through the year 2031, but somehow that contract isn’t binding, and direct competitiors, namely LSU and Florida, are free to talk to him and apparently just take him, unless Ole Miss matches their offers, and even then, Kiffin has spoken about how good football programs have the largest stadiums, national titles, and Heisman trophies, with Kiffin regularly scolding the Ole Miss fanbase because it doesn’t show up drunkenly rabid to support this team dismantling The Citadel, with the one thing positive he could muster was “I love Ole Miss” in last night’s press conference, but clearly he sees Ole Miss as much smaller than he is, as something that is beneath him.

I do not like Lane Kiffin, and I never have. From day one I’ve called him a Hollywood coach, a coach who has the looks, but who lacks character. Ask any Tennessee fan about Lane Kiffin’s character. He is leaving Ole Miss, and the only question now is, which place will end up the highest bidder? After all, Ole Miss has a contract extension on his desk right now that he refuses to sign, and he could just sign it, put these rumors to rest, and focus his team on making a run in the playoffs, but that is not how this is going to go down.

Rather than have the Ole Miss program held hostage like this, while it is experiencing its greatest success since 1962, I’d like to see Kiffin gone, because this happens every single year, that Ole Miss gets punished for its own success. But it highlights a bigger issue, this business model that treats contracts as suggestions, that makes it acceptable for schools to fire their coaches mid-season. The entire thing is completely broken, and it is getting difficult for someone like me to continue to follow it or care about it. As soon as I start caring about it at all, something like this happens, that isn’t about winning or losing football games, but about how individuals can extract the most money out of it.

To say something about Kiffin, one of his strengths at Ole Miss has always been that he doesn’t really care. He didn’t care about the old system, and he doesn’t care about the new system. He just plays the hand he is dealt with a completely dispassionate outlook. That has enabled him to be on the bleeding edge of the NIL shift, while other coaches could not not adapt. He is absolutely the reason why Ole Miss has had this six-year run of success. So, you can’t fault him all that much for being that way, for looking out for his own interest in a profession in which contracts are just suggestions, in which he can be fired mid-season if the fan base forms a mob and calls for his head, as is the case at both LSU and at Florida. If I were him, I would skip all of it and move on to the NFL, where contracts are enforced. I think that is actually going to be the outcome, too, that he is probably going to the NFL’s New York Giants, after all is said and done.

He will not remain at Ole Miss, is my guess, and I do not want him to remain at Ole Miss, because this happens every single year, this punishment for having success.