After being linked to Florida all week, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin chose not to reveal his thoughts on 2026 following the No. 7 Rebels’ 34-24 win over the Gators at Vaught–Hemingway Stadium on Saturday night.
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“I love what we’re doing here,” said Kiffin during his postgame news conference. “Today was awesome. To even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and what they did today.”
Some Ole Miss boosters and fans took offense to Kiffin’s comments, feeling like his answer was disrespectful to a community that has bent over backwards to support him this season. The student section chanted “we want Lane” as the team headed for the exits after beating Florida, a program Kiffin is clearly flirting with.
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The Rebels are having tremendous success and will enter their regular-season finale against 5-6 Mississippi State on Nov. 28 with a 10-1 record and a chance to earn a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.
Kiffin could sign a contract extension with Ole Miss during the bye week. Or, he could be fired.
During an episode of “Josh Pate’s College Football Show” on Sunday, the host suggested he’d fire Kiffin if he didn’t sign a contract extension and would promote defensive coordinator Pete Golding as the interim head coach for the CFP.
“At some point, I’m getting an answer from him, and it’s gonna happen before the Egg Bowl,” Pate said. “I’m putting a new contract in front of him. Everything he says he needs is on this piece of paper.”
“And he’s either gonna sign it, and we’re gonna move on, and the noise is gonna die down, and we’re gonna put out a big announcement right before we play Mississippi State, like (Texas) A&M did with (Mike) Elko yesterday, or we’re gonna understand we’ll wrap up this regular season, and then we’ll go our separate ways. And I’m just telling you, if I’m Ole Miss, Pete Golding is gonna be my head coach in the playoff.”
Pate believes Ole Miss can’t let Kiffin hold them hostage in December and January.
“If I’m not good enough for you to stick around in the future, then you’re not good enough to stick around here when it comes playoff time,” Pate said. “That’s the way I would be. You gotta be selfish at some point. You gotta look out for your best interests at some point.”
The Oakland Raiders fired Kiffin in 2008 “for cause”, meaning the Raiders did not have to pay him the remainder of his contract. One of the reasons cited was Kiffin’s lack of concern for his contract with the team.
Kiffin filed a grievance to recover the lost salary, but an NFL arbitrator ruled in favor of the Raiders.
Firing Kiffin before the CFP would be a messy way for things to end in Oxford. Frankly, it might hurt the Rebels’ chances of winning the national title this season.
However, it could be in Ole Miss’ best interest to find a suitable replacement as quickly as possible so the program doesn’t risk sliding into obscurity in 2026 if Kiffin plans to leave.
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