Keith Carter (1)
The Mississippi Rebels athletic director has to deal with the fact that he’s paying $8.85 million to an unserious football coach. Lane Kiffin just can’t quite seem to get to adult coachhood.
Kiffin is generally considered to have his best team at Ole Miss, one stacked with skill talent and better than ever on the lines. With an expanded playoff, this is Kiffin’s big chance to position his team to win something. But the Rebels are 0–1 in the Southeastern Conference after an upset home loss to the Kentucky Wildcats as a double-digit favorite, flunking their first major test.
In the run-up to that game last week, Kiffin was sniping at Auburn Tigers coach Hugh Freeze. On the Wednesday league teleconference, Kiffin was asked about Freeze complimenting the Ole Miss NIL collective, which is run by Walker Jones. Kiffin’s response: “That is nice of Coach Freeze to compliment our management of our collective. I’m sure he’ll try to steal Walker Jones like he’s tried all of our coaches also.”
There were comments earlier in the week, too. After Freeze was ripped by a number of people—including his star quarterback from his Ole Miss tenure, Bo Wallace—for throwing his Auburn players under the bus for committing too many turnovers, Kiffin had some thoughts about supporting a struggling QB.
“You go back to [former Ole Miss QB] Matt Corral when he threw six interceptions [against Arkansas in 2020] and before I even got to media, sitting down with him and telling him, ‘We got to do a better job calling plays. I got to coach better. Don’t worry, we got your back.’ I think that goes a long ways, and it goes a long way with a kid in recruiting, knowing what they’re going to get when they get here from a relationship, and they can trust us to have their back.”
This was more of Kiffin stirring the pot when he might have been better served by keeping his head down and figuring out how to score more than 17 against the Wildcats. Just once, it would be nice to see him approach a big game quietly.
We are already two weeks into deep speculation about Kiffin and the Florida job that isn’t yet open, but likely will be. Last time Kiffin was flirting with a school about a job it was, in fact, Auburn. The Tigers fired Bryan Harsin in late October 2022, and Kiffin’s name was front and center. His Ole Miss team lost its last four games of the season.
Mississippi’s chances of making the playoff: Still could happen, but losing to Kentucky at home is a bad way to start league play with so many challenging games left.
Forde-Yard Dash: Lane Kiffin’s Focus Is Anywhere but on the Field With Ole Miss
Each week, The Dash will identify 12 people dealing with damaged playoff hopes, and gauge their teams’ chances of rebounding from calamity.
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