Lane Kiffin explains his approach to mid-April transfer portal opening: 'It's a free-for-all'

With the transfer window opening on Saturday and spring practices wrapping up, coaches will be free to try and patch holes in their roster. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, the self-proclaimed “Portal King,” will be no exception.

Ole Miss brought 14 transfers in during the last cycle between the conclusion of the regular season and winter workouts. Even with that influx, Kiffin will be on the lookout for more talent to add to his roster.

“We’re always in search of making the roster the best that we can,” Kiffin said on the “Paul Finebaum Show” on Friday afternoon. “We have a number of holes to fill. So we will definitely be looking at that as they come available and see what we can do. We’ve had some good success in years before in these windows.

“So this is interesting to kind of have two windows, it’ll be kind of like having two free agencies in professional sports. So you have spring to evaluate what you’re doing and other people what they’re doing. And now you have free agency.”

Kiffin added a fascinating insight: Much of the work happening during the portal cycles now is effectively re-recruiting players already on the roster to prevent them from transferring.

In describing the problem, Kiffin used the example of Quinshon Judkins, who as a freshman running back for Ole Miss, ran for the seventh-most rushing yards in the country in 2022. Now Kiffin is working to make sure Judkins stays focused on practice and school while others are trying to recruit him away.

Kiffin, though, did not name names when discussing other schools hitting up Judkins.

“I think it is what it is and we just try to, whatever rules they set up, we try to maximize the situation that we’re in,” Kiffin said. “But yeah, it is just kind of a free-for-all and like I said, it’s like you have to recruit your players once to sign them, like always.

“Then you’ve gotta re-recruit them every window, to stay. So you have a player like Quinshon Judkins who was, you know, arguably the best freshman in America. Well that’s awesome. But then all of a sudden you’ve got all kinds of schools recruiting him while he’s still here and trying to get him to go school, go to practice, and people are recruiting him, that’s really challenging. It’s really not good for the kids.”