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Dan Wetzel
If Lane Kiffin Quit His Job He Will Always Regret It ole miss Team.
If he decides to take another job — Florida or LSU — while he’s on the verge of leading a potentially 11-1 Rebel team to the College Football Playoff, he’ll forever regret it. He’ll never forget the fact that he turned his back on a locker room ready to fight him for a national title – all for the supposedly green grass of Gainesville or Baton Rouge.
What kind of coach would do that?
It has nothing to do with which job offers more benefits or money or proximity to talent. This has nothing to do with long term.
Timing is everything in life. Sometimes for the positive, sometimes not. that’s how it works. Adults deal with it.
Kiffin may be free to step away from the Rebels, but everyone else is free to judge him if he does.
If he does so, the decision will not be positive.
Kiffin, 50, knows drama and setbacks. USC fired him at an airport. Nick Saban hired him as an assistant at Alabama just days before a national title game, convinced he was too focused on his next job as coach at Florida Atlantic. Al Davis fired him from the Oakland Raiders and declared he was done He was “frauded” into getting hired in the first place.,
Kiffin also knows he has rebuilt his reputation, especially recently at Oxford. A better coach. A better father. a better man. When not discussing football, he talks about how balanced, balanced and happy his life has become.
“The whole good old days… I’m in them right now,” Kiffin said Saturday, coincidentally, after beating Florida. “I think people don’t realize when they’re in them. And then they grow up and say, ‘Remember it was great at the time?’ You know, I’m lucky to be among them.”
Ole Miss heads into next week’s season finale against Mississippi State at 10-1. The Rebels are set to host a first-round playoff game in what will arguably be the largest sporting event in state history. This alone is a significant moment for a school that has fulfilled its coach’s every wish.
His success has made him a coveted coaching candidate, with two big programs seemingly willing to do just about anything to get him – including ignoring the fact that they’re hiring a guy who will walk out on the eve of the postseason.
In an ideal world, this decision would be made after the Ole Miss season. However, the calendar doesn’t work like that. UF and LSU need a coach. Returning talent needs convincing to stay. Recruits must be identified.
The high school signing period begins December 3. The transfer portal opens on January 2.
Ole Miss’ first-round playoff game will be Dec. 19 or 20. Win, as Ole Miss would love to do, and the quarterfinals will be on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.
For Kiffin, it’s either stay or go. There is no time to do both. Pledge your allegiance to Ole Miss or move out and get a fresh start. Because of the former he may lose the opportunity he always wanted. However, the latter would define him.
The coach who left a playoff team? This is unimaginable.
Other than general comments about how happy he is at Ole Miss, Kiffin isn’t saying much.
“We’re having a blast,” Kiffin said Tuesday on “The Pat McAfee Show.” He added, “I love it here.”
That said, Kiffin’s family members — including ex-wife Layla and son Knox, a high school student — visited Gainesville and Baton Rouge in recent days, ESPN and others reported. Kiffin says Ole Miss hasn’t given him any ultimatum timeline, but there’s no better time than the present to make a decision.
Kiffin should stay and see out the season; Try to win, try to reach the Final Four or beyond, make memories and build those deep bonds that coaching is supposed to be about.
This has nothing to do with the quality of the opportunity at LSU or Florida. Both schools offer immense resources, commitment and potential. Both are located in talent rich states. Both have advantages that Ole Miss can’t compare, although here in the zero/portal/revenue share era, the gap has narrowed.
Under different circumstances he could have gone; maybe that too Needed Go.
However, not under these circumstances. Not at this time. Not with such a good team, not at such a supportive school, not in such a magical season.
Certainly not without making everyone wonder whether Al Davis was right all along.
