Lane Kiffin’s lengthy coaching decision means one thing: He better win this week

Ryan Day is 81-10 as Ohio State’s head coach, including 11-0 this year as the Buckeyes try to repeat as national champions. It’s an amazing run of success.

However, Day is best known for going 0-4 against Michigan over the past four years, including a shocking home defeat to a mediocre Wolverines team a year ago. Another loss Saturday in Ann Arbor, especially as ESPN BET is an 11.5-point betting favorite, would invite continued disdain and frustration.

That’s why you believe Day is the coach under the most pressure to win a given game this weekend.

Then Lane Kiffin comes in and says, Grab Hottie Toddy.

Kevin has yet to publicly announce where he will be working next season, let alone the rest of this season. It might be LSU. It might be Florida. Or it could be Ole Miss, as the Rebels are 10-1 at No. 6 heading into the Egg Bowl on Friday at Mississippi State.

“An announcement on Coach Kevin’s future is expected the Saturday following the game,” Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter wrote in a statement.

It’s a game Kiffin better win.

Forget the rest of this messy story. The long, slow drag of the ad. The fact that Kevin had members of his family touring other schools and towns… while he was still working at Oxford is said to be a factor. Excerpts from the cryptic daily book are posted by Kiffin on social media, leaving fans to try and decipher their meanings.

Or even the fact that the decision is merely “expected” on Saturday.

maybe. Or maybe not. Who really knows? It’s soft. Maybe he’ll choose a hat, as recruiters do, or ask Jesse Palmer to come to town for a bachelorette-style rose party.

If nothing else, Kiffin, a character like no other, made Friday’s game in Starkville, Mississippi, a game like no other – one of the most “must-win” contests a coach has ever faced.

Ole Miss is having its greatest season in over 60 years. The college football game is waiting for you. A home playoff game, perhaps the biggest sporting event in state history, is at hand. The Rebels are the absolute national contenders in the semifinals, if not able to win the whole thing. Kevin himself has never had a season this successful.

However, if Ole Miss gets upset on Friday by its archrival, it could all fall apart. If so, the blame will be individual.

He can lose the day and, despite the embarrassment, move on to greater challenges.

Kiffin may never give up creating a circus of speculation and distractions as he contemplates resigning from a playoff team.

Its defenders can blame the old calendar, but life is about timing. Sometimes that doesn’t work in your favor. Leaving a team with great potential (Ole Miss is unlikely to let him coach in a playoff spot) for another program’s green turf would be an extraordinary decision. Is he a coach or a job seeker?

The feelings will be bitter enough if Kiffin leaves after getting the win that puts Ole Miss in the playoff. If the Rebels lose, anyway? They’re not sure of anything, caught in a crowded group of 10-2 competitors seeking an at-large bid. They can be excluded.

To make matters worse, Kiffin could be bailing the next day. That would give the College Football Playoff Committee the option of demoting the Rebels because they lost their head coach the way they demoted Florida State two years ago because they lost their starting quarterback to injury.

This way, the dream season will have a nightmarish ending… just as the perpetrator of the crime escapes the city. How will this end?

Ole Miss is an 8.5-point favorite. They should beat a Mississippi State team that has shown impressive growth this year but is still in the rebuilding phase. This is an egg bowl, though. Anything can happen and it has happened. It bothers. Return. A man tasks his team with imitating a dog urinating during a touchdown celebration.

This thing is always wild.

“Coach Kevin and I have had many clear and positive conversations regarding his future at Ole Miss,” Carter wrote in his statement. “As we discuss next steps, we know we cannot lose sight of what is most important – our sixth-place team that is poised to finish the regular season in historic fashion.

“Despite the outside noise, Coach Kevin is focused on preparing our team for the Egg Bowl,” Carter wrote.

It better be. And Ole Miss better win it.