Joel Klatt: Lane Kiffin would have no credibility as a head coordinator if he left Ole Miss

The Lane Kiffin saga appears set to come to an end later this week, and it looks like he’ll be moving from Ole Miss — a decision FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt doesn’t agree with.

On the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” he shared that he heard LSU is in the lead for the Kiffin sweepstakes.

“I’ve been all over the map and partly because the information has been all over the map,” Klatt said. “There have been moments when I thought he’s definitely going to stay at Miss. There’s been moments [when] I’ve been told he’s definitely going to Florida. Now, there it is [have] There were moments when I was told that he was definitely going to LSU.

“That’s the information situation. It’s very credible that LSU is the front-runner. Obviously that’s coming to a head because they’re announcing when the decision will be made.”

As Klatt noted, there have been several developments over the past month surrounding Kevin’s coaching future. Both LSU and Florida fired their head coaches in October, with Kiffin emerging as a prime candidate for both jobs. Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter also said around the time of those dismissals that the school He was looking to give Kiffin a Curt Cignetti-like extensionas the Indiana coach received a contract that made him the third-highest-paid coach in the country in October.

During Ole Miss’s bye last week, it seemed that rumors about Kiffin’s future had reached a boiling point. Multiple reports have surfaced about his family Take trips to campuses in Florida and LSU. A report from Yahoo Sports on Saturday said LSU was preparing to offer Kiffin a seven-year deal worth a total of at least $90 million.

After a week full of rumors, Carter He issued a statement reading The decision on Kiffin’s future will come after Ole Miss’s game against Mississippi State on Friday.

In the background of all this, Ole Miss appears poised to make the College Football Playoff. It entered Friday’s game 10-1 and ranked sixth in the latest CFP poll. The Rebels may also play in the SEC Championship Game.

With Kiffin appearing to be on the verge of leaving a CFP contender at the height of their season, Klatt wondered how effective he would be in his next job.

“Your credibility is your currency as a coach,” he said. “How does Lane Kiffin leave Ole Miss in the middle of a playoff run and have any credibility in his next spot? I don’t think he will. We can sit here and lament the calendar and realize that’s not a great position for Lane to be in. I totally agree with that, but it’s still up to him as well.”

“If you say yes to everything, how can you commit to anything?”

Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for another job would be an unprecedented move in the CFP era. Kalen DeBoer is the only coach to leave for another program immediately after taking his team to the CFP, but he left Washington for Alabama after the national championship.

With Ole Miss seemingly in control of its path to the CFP, Klatt wondered why Kiffin thought he had to make that jump in order to win the national championship.

“I don’t think he has to go anywhere to be successful,” Klatt said. “This isn’t what it used to be. It was like LSU would open up, and you’re like, ‘I’ve got to go there if I want to win at the top end.'” But guess what? The proof that you don’t have to do that is Lane at Ole Miss. He’s the proof that you don’t have to do that. He’s winning at the top at Ole Miss. And he doesn’t have to leave.

“Curt Cignetti is proving it at Indiana. He’s No. 2 in the country. No. 2 and he can win a national championship this year. Joey McGuire is proving it at Texas Tech. You don’t have to go there. You can win in this era. In the modern era of college football, fit is more important than the logo on your hat because you can win if you have support, which is what they do at Old Miss. It’s not a financial thing.”

As for Klatt, Kiffin has helped Ole Miss become a CFP contender since becoming its head coach in 2020. He has gone 54-19 in his six seasons at the helm as it just missed the CFP in 2024. He has finished in the top 12 in two of Kiffin’s other first five seasons at Ole Miss.

While the Rebels flourished under Kiffin, LSU did not have the same success. LSU is set to finish with a worse record than Ole Miss for the fourth time in the past five seasons, with Brian Kelly fired as the Tigers’ head coach after losing another big game to Texas A&M in October.

On top of Klatt’s concerns about Ole Miss and Kiffin’s reputation due to the impending move, he’s also concerned about the precedent this could set in college football.

“I’m worried about what this is going to mean for college football, because this is going to be a car accident of epic proportions,” Klatt said. “If he leaves and doesn’t coach CFP, he will destroy the Ole Miss football team. These kids have committed to him as much as they have committed to Ole Miss. Then they have committed to each other to achieve something great. They will not excel in the playoffs without him as their play-caller.”

“If he leaves them, it’s not the calendar’s fault just because he has power. He has power, and he doesn’t have to leave.”

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