With Lane Kiffin set to decide between staying as the Ole Miss football head coach and jumping ship to LSU, ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew talked candidly about his future.
“If he were gonna stay at Ole Miss… don’t you think we would’ve already seen he’s re-upping and staying at Ole Miss?” panelist and former quarterback Kirk Herbstreit said. “Chances are, he’s going to Baton Rouge.”
Nick Saban, legendary former LSU and Alabama head coach, laid out the appeal of coaching at LSU.
“Where is the place that I can recruit the best players? I think one of Lane’s apprehensions is he’s had to use the portal to build his team at Ole Miss each year,” Saban said. “At LSU, he probably could recruit better talent and then just supplement his team by need with the portal.”
Ole Miss has routinely had one of the top transfer portal hauls each offseason under Kiffin. LSU’s hauls have been more modest, aside from this past offseason’s No. 1 ranked class, but the school has almost unchallenged access to a rich high school recruiting base in Louisiana.
“That’s probably the dilemma that he has, as well as his loyalty to his team that he’s coaching now that he wants to be able to continue to coach,” Saban concluded, “so it’s a tough thing to have the right answer to.”
The “GameDay” crew also weighed the decision Ole Miss would have to make if Kiffin chose to leave: does the program allow him to finish out the season with a team that could make a national championship run?
“How about making a decision based on what’s best for the players? And that’s for the coach to finish the year,” Saban said.
Much of the panel seemed to agree.
“I just think the timing of the calendar, the schedule,” analyst and former punter Pat McAfee said. “The transfer portal, the recruiting deadline. There’s so many people that have to think about the future. It’s a terrible situation for everybody, all parties involved.”
SEC Network reporter Marty Smith told the “GameDay” crew that Kiffin is set to meet with Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter this afternoon and is focused this morning on drawing up a potential gameplan for the SEC Championship.
With Texas A&M’s loss to Texas on Friday, Ole Miss could face Georgia in the SEC Championship if Auburn upsets Alabama on Saturday night.
Smith also said, in his decision, Kiffin will consult Saban and former USC, current Oakland Raiders head coach Pete Carroll. Kiffin was an assistant under Saban at Alabama and under Carroll at USC.
Kiffin’s decision still seems to be up in the air.
