Joel Klatt: Ole Miss should give Lane Kiffin an ultimatum – he’s a distraction

Lane Kiffin denied any ultimatum from Ole Miss about his coaching future, but Joel Klatt believes the program’s biggest threat isn’t another SEC rival, it’s the indecision of its own head coach.

In the most recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” Klatt said that it’s past due for Kiffin to determine if he wants to stay at Ole Miss or depart for Florida or LSU amid rumors that his family recently toured both campuses. 

“Obviously not a good look, which is why I have told you all this entire time that the only thing that can derail Ole Miss — and this is really unfortunate for these players, who’ve committed and played really well this year — is that the distraction is their head coach,” Klatt said of the rumors surrounding Kiffin. “The distraction is where he’s going to be in the next year. If I was Ole Miss, I would give him an ultimatum.”

A report from The Athletic on Monday said that Ole Miss was giving Kiffin until its matchup against Mississippi State on Nov. 28 to make a decision about his future. Kiffin refuted that report on Tuesday, but Klatt believes that there’s likely some “sentiment” of an ultimatum from Ole Miss’ end to force its head coach to make a decision. 

“There probably is something going on behind the scenes where Ole Miss is like, ‘Hey, we need to know what’s going on,'” Klatt said. “In true Lane fashion, the college football world, at least from a coaching perspective, kind of revolves around him and he loves when things revolve around him. He loves when things revolve around him on social media. He’s soaking this in. He’s out doing the circuit and all the interviews. 

“All he needs to do if he wants to stay at Ole Miss is do it, because everybody else has! Don’t you understand? The handwriting is on the wall. Why would he stay there now? Now, they’re starting to be animus. Now, Ole Miss is starting to be like, ‘C’mon, what’s the deal?'”

Between LSU and Florida, Kiffin is being pursued by arguably two of the nation’s most resource-rich programs. In fact, Klatt previously said that LSU is one of the three-best jobs in the nation and floated the idea that it might offer its next head coach a contract worth $15 million per year, which would be the highest mark in the nation. 

But Klatt isn’t so sure this is a compensation issue. 

“I do know that Ole Miss will match any offer. So, this is not about money,” Klatt said. “They will match. He’s got autonomy there. I’m not saying he has to stay. I’m just saying I understand why Ole Miss feels this way. The longer this goes, the longer he doesn’t commit to Ole Miss, the worse that relationship is and the more likely it is that he is leaving.” 

To Klatt’s point, Kiffin is currently the 10th-highest paid coach in the nation with his $9 million salary, per USA Today’s database. Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter also told On3 in October that he would like to get an extension with Kiffin done soon and similar to the one that Indiana gave Curt Cignetti, which made him the third-highest-paid coach in the nation. 

Of course, at the backdrop of all this is Ole Miss’ push to make the College Football Playoff. The Rebels are 10-1 as they enter their second bye week this season. They were ranked sixth in the latest edition of the CFP rankings, putting them in a good spot to make the playoff for the first time in program history. 

That led Klatt to mention arguably his biggest gripe with college football right now. 

“You get into this scenario because our calendar in college football is so stupid and broken that we might have a team at Ole Miss qualify for the College Football Playoff and their coach leaves,” Klatt said. ” What are we doing? Can we please fix the calendar? We yell and scream about some of the dumbest things in college football, and some of the most obvious things to fix are right in front of our eyes. We’re starting to see that come to a head with the Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin issue.” 

If Ole Miss makes the College Football Playoff and Kiffin departs elsewhere before then, it’d mark the first time in the history of the CFP that a team would play in a playoff game without its head coach. The only other instance of a coach leaving their team for another school right after leading them to the CFP came in 2023, when Kalen DeBoer left Washington to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. 

But the college football coaching carousel has already begun spinning. Virginia Tech made the first head coach hire on Monday, nabbing former Penn State head coach James Franklin. LSU, Florida and six other power conference schools are also searching for a new head coach, and with the early signing period fast approaching (Dec. 3-5), programs are looking to make hires as soon as possible.

Still, Klatt doesn’t seem to have much empathy for Kiffin in this situation. 

“If he wanted to be there, he would’ve said it,” Klatt said. “We’ve got [Mike] Elko with extension [at Texas A&M]. We have a Cignetti with an accessory. We have [Kenny] Dillingham says he’ll stay [at Arizona State]. We have Dan Lanning saying he’s staying [at Oregon]. Matt Rhule received an extension [at Nebraska]. All these men were named and thrown there. All you have to do is say you’ll stay. That’s all you have to do. “If you don’t, more hostility will emerge and it will be more and more difficult to survive the longer this goes on.”

Ultimately, Klatt sympathizes with the Ole Miss players in this situation.

“It’s too bad, because I don’t like this from a calendar perspective,” Klatt said. “You know who I don’t like? I don’t really care about all the coaches in this thing because they’re adults, but I care about the players. You can tell me the players are getting paid and everything’s fine, but it’s still bad. You think about those guys who committed to Ole Miss, who went through everything and tried to put themselves in a position to compete for a national championship. Well, part of that is they need their own player. Part of Lynn’s gift is that he’s a great player on Saturdays, this team, without Lynn Kevin, not nearly as good.

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