Lane Kiffin’s family may have toured Gainesville, Fla., in a highly publicized move in the middle of the coaching carousel, but the Mississippi head coach will not make a similar trip after the conclusion of the Rebels’ regular season.
Sources confirm to Sports Illustrated that despite the Gators making a significant offer to Kiffin and his representatives, the school is not expected to be his next coaching destination. Florida officials spent the past several days moving on to other options in the market.
Kiffin was widely viewed as Florida’s primary target in its search to replace the fired Billy Napier and had high hopes of landing him as one of the top jobs available this cycle. However, the surprise axing of Brian Kelly at LSU just a few weeks later opened another quality destination for the Rebels coach. Sources close to Kiffin believe he will pick between accepting the job in Baton Rouge or remaining in Oxford, Miss., after the conclusion of Friday afternoon’s Egg Bowl against Mississippi State.
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Ole Miss officials have been in close contact with Kiffin for weeks as he has weighed his options, including having several high-level meetings with athletic director Keith Carter and school chancellor Glenn Boyce. The Rebels have offered him a new contract, according to a source, which would make Kiffin among the highest-paid coaches in the country with a salary similar to that of Georgia’s Kirby Smart. Additional assurances have also been made regarding investment into the program, including on the staff salary pool and NIL resources.
However, Kiffin had not signed the deal as of Thursday night and will have to decide on staying with his current team as it makes a run to the College Football Playoff or if he will accept a similar mega-deal to coach at SEC rival LSU. The Tigers and new athletic director Verge Ausberry have likewise put together a large contract offer for Kiffin and optimism has run high by senior officials at the school that he will accept over the next few days.
Kiffin’s decision will be a key domino in the coaching market, not just for Florida, LSU and Ole Miss but for others in a similar position weighing options before conference championship weekend. His destination will particularly frame the market for Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, who is believed to be a top candidate at Auburn, but also has received significant interest from Florida and is expected to be in the mix at whichever school Kiffin doesn’t choose, between LSU and Mississippi. Staying at Tulane is also an option.
Sumrall is a former assistant at Ole Miss and an Alabama native who played in the SEC at Kentucky. He’s also had conversations with most of the schools looking for a new head coach, but is not expected to make a final decision on his future until after the Green Wave’s game on Saturday night against Temple that could lock up a spot in the American conference championship game. Unlike Kiffin, if Tulane wins the league and makes the College Football Playoff with the Group of 5 bid, the expectation in New Orleans is that he would remain with the team until the conclusion of their run.
One way or another, however, it remains Kiffin who is the lynchpin in this year’s carousel and the key domino on which a host of programs and fellow coaches are waiting on going into the final full weekend of the regular season.
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